<P> Should Joshua the son of Nun endorse a mistaken position, I would reject it out of hand, I do not hesitate to express my opinion, regarding such matters in accordance with the modicum of intelligence allotted to me . I was never arrogant claiming "My Wisdom served me well". Instead I applied to myself the parable of the philosophers . For I heard the following from the philosophers, The wisest of the philosophers asked: "We admit that our predecessors were wiser than we . At the same time we criticize their comments, often rejecting them and claiming that the truth rests with us . How is this possible?" The wise philosopher responded: "Who sees further a dwarf or a giant? Surely a giant for his eyes are situated at a higher level than those of the dwarf . But if the dwarf is placed on the shoulders of the giant who sees further?...So too we are dwarfs astride the shoulders of giants . We master their wisdom and move beyond it . Due to their wisdom we grow wise and are able to say all that we say, but not because we are greater than they . </P> <P> Diego de Estella took up the quote in the 16th century; by the 17th century it had become commonplace . Robert Burton, in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), quotes Stella thus: </P> <P> I say with Didacus Stella, a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself . </P> <P> Later editors of Burton misattributed the quote to Lucan; in their hands Burton's attribution Didacus Stella, in luc 10, tom . ii "Didacus on the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10; volume 2" became a reference to Lucan's Pharsalia 2.10 . No reference or allusion to the quote is found there . </P>

We're standing on the shoulders of giants