As long as I can remember I been aware of this famous quotation from Isaac Newton

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

and thought of it as a distinctly modest remark by one of the three greatest mathematicians in history.

However, there is more to it. Newton chose that image at least in part because of his feud with Robert Hooke, who was physically rather short.

From “On the Shoulders of Giants” or, Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten Cold Edition at The Inverse Square Blog, which I learned about from Cosmic Variance.