Standing on the shoulders of giants

The phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" is a metaphor which means "using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress". It is a metaphor of a person who wants to reach higher, standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin: nani gigantum humeris insidentes) and expresses the meaning of "discovering truth by building on previous discoveries".

Source: Wikipedia — Standing on the shoulders of giants (CC BY-SA 4.0)