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Since you are clearly a fan of history, I hope you'll take a minute to read the essay "Sweetness and Light" in this collection of essays by Stephen Jay Gould. Spoiler alert, he points out that the above quote would have been understood to be a common phrase in the time of Newton, and that's why he himself didn't quote it. My colleague has a poster on her door with this phrase and the Newton attribution, and my skin crawls a little bit every time I walk past. Here is an image of the stained glass in Chartes Cathedral, which dates from the 12th c. In it, you can see the scholars of the time standing (literally) on the shoulders of giants in order that they perceive the world more wholly.
