stand on the shoulders of giants

present singular third person stands on the shoulders of giants · participle present standing on the shoulders of giants · participle past stood on the shoulders of giants · past stood on the shoulders of giants

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo build on the achievements of others before one.

   If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants.

   1675 February 5, Isaac Newton, “Newton to Hooke”, in H. W. Turnbull, editor, The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, Volume I: 1661–1675, Cambridge University Press, published 1959, page 416

   3 more examples

   In this 200th anniversary year of our Constitution, you and I stand on the shoulders of giants—men whose words and deeds put wind in the sails of freedom.

   1987 January 27, Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address

   "In the western scientific tradition we stand on the shoulders of giants," says Young, echoing both Torvalds and Sir Isaac Newton before him.

   2002, Sam Williams, chapter 10, in Free as in Freedom, →ISBN

   It is useful, though, to remember the conclusion of the maxim: we stand on the shoulders of giants to see better and farther than they.

   2007, C. M. C. Green, Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia, page xv