If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. – Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1675 (“Bernard of Chartres used

We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them. РFran̤ois VI de la Rochefoucault

It is a mistake to imagine that potentially great men are rare. It is the conditions that permit the promise of greatness to be fulfilled that are rare. What is so difficult to achieve is the cultural background that permits potential greatness to be converted into actual greatness. – Fred Hoyle, Of Man and Galaxies