“We are like dwarfs [the moderns] sitting on the shoulders of giants [the ancients].”

We [the Moderns] are like dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants [the Ancients], and thus we are able to see more and farther than the latter.

We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they.

Our glance can thus take in more things and reach farther than theirs. It is not because our sight is sharper nor our height greater than theirs; it is that we are carried and elevated by the high stature of the giants.