Seth Trueger
@mdaware.org
14K followers 6.6K following 23K posts
ER doc at Northwestern & @BedsideMedNU.bsky.social interests include social media for medical journals and medical education, health policy, and airway management amateur guitar gear nerd opinions are mine, arent medical advice ja.ma/seth
![Early references
Middle Ages
The earliest documented attestation of this aphorism appears in 1123 in William of Conches's Glosses on Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae.[4] Where Priscian says quanto juniores, tanto perspicaciores (young men simply can see more sharply), William comments:
The ancients had only the books which they themselves wrote, but we have all their books and moreover all those which have been written from the beginning until our time.… Hence we are like a dwarf perched on the shoulders of a giant. The former sees further than the giant, not because of his own stature, but because of the stature of his bearer. Similarly, we [moderns] see more than the ancients, because our writings, modest as they are, are added to their great works.[5]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:i7g62qhqwyobrqzg63yyz7vf/bafkreibyhn3s6og4bm74nltug3vlsmczoptntlv6com24jkna676qyckz4)
