Quotes from book
The Wailing Asteroid

Name: The Wailing Asteroid
Author: Murray Leinster

The Wailing Asteroid is a science-fiction novel written by Murray Leinster (William Fitzgerald Jenkins) and first published in 1960 by Avon Books. It presents the theme of the lone inventor who saves Earth from cosmic danger and introduces Humanity to an unknown civilization. The novel was adapted for film as The Terrornauts in 1967.

“Eminent men were called on to take command and arrange suitable measures. They immediately acted as eminent men so often do; the took action to retain their eminence. Their first instinct is caution. When a man is important enough, it does not matter if he never does anything. It is only required of him that he do nothing wrong. Eminent figures all over the world prepared to do nothing wrong. They were not so concerned to do anything right.”

Murray Leinster book The Wailing Asteroid

Source: The Wailing Asteroid (1960), Chapter 3