Originally Posted by
Kevin_Lowe
.. It's been referred to by Newton as "standing on the shoulders of giants". Natural talent is no substitute for cribbing from generations of people as smart as you or smarter who worked very hard to understand the topic.
Just a minor quibble here.
Quote:
The attribution to Bernard is due to John of Salisbury. In 1159, John wrote in his Metalogicon:[2]
Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.
(Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis nos esse quasi nanos, gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvenimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea.)