Meaning: Each generation builds on the knowledge of the one before
Background: This phrase is often attributed to Isaac Newton but it was Bernard
de Chartres (10??-1130) who said something similar:
"We are like dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and
things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is
superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up,
and by their great stature add to ours."
To this day a visual reference to the shoulders of giants can be seen in the
south rose window of the Cathedral school of Chartres, which shows the four
major prophets - Jerimiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel as giant figures, and on
their shoulders sit the much smaller figures of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
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Wow. I always thought it was Newton!
I've also been wondering who gets to be hoisted onto those giant shoulders. Is
it a birthright, an achievement, or "thrusted upon," as Shakespeare said, some
poor bastards?
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