Sir Michael Foster...on the heritage of science
For indeed it is one of the lessons of the history of science that each age steps on the shoulders of the ages which have gone before. The value of each age is not its own, but is in part, a debt to its forerunners. And this age of ours if, like its predecessors, it can boast of something of which it is proud, would, could it reach the future, doubtless find also much of which it would be ashamed.
- History of Philosophy, 1901