BEFORE PRES. OBAMA, THERE WAS BERNARD OF CHARTRES (d. 1130 AD)

According to Wikipedia, Pres. Obama's point that we owe some of our success to our predecessors has been a truism for centuries in the West:

Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin: nani gigantum humeris insidentes) is a Western metaphor meaning "One who develops future intellectual pursuits by understanding and building on the research and works created by notable thinkers of the past," a contemporary interpretation. However, the metaphor was first recorded in the twelfth century and attributed to Bernard of Chartres.[1] It was famously uttered by seventeenth-century scientist Isaac Newton (see below), as the statement "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants".[1]

The attribution to Bernard is due to John of Salisbury. In 1159, John wrote in his Metalogicon:[2]

"Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size."

("Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis nos esse quasi nanos, gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvenimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea.")