The best-known use of this phrase was by Isaac Newton in a letter to his rival Robert Hooke, in 1676: "What Descartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

　　而且这个比喻也并非牛顿原创。根据史料 ，早在 12世纪，著名的法国沙特尔学校校长、 中世纪哲学家伯纳德( Bernard of Chartres)就曾说过：“Nos esse quasi nanos gigantium humeris insidientes.”大意是， 我们都像坐在巨人肩膀上的矮子。这句话如今还能在沙特尔市著名的哥特式大教堂的窗户上找到。伯纳德以来，至少有十余人用过这一比喻，牛顿是其中最著名的一个。

　　But Newton didn't coin the phrase himself. He was alluding to a simile said much earlier by Bernard of Chartres, a 12th-century man.John of Salisbury wrote that Bernard of Chartres used to say that "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."

　　Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

　　我能否将你与夏日相比?

　　莎翁这句几百年来被情侣们奉为经典的情话实际上并不是写给哪位姑娘的，而是献给自己心目中的男神——莎士比亚最好的同性朋友的赞美诗。小伙伴们来看下一句，Thou art more lovely and more temperate.(你比夏天更可爱，更温婉。)简直更加情意绵绵了有木有。事实上，莎士比亚一生中总共写了上百首十四行诗献给这位仁兄!基情四射啊。

　　More than one slick love letter has included this phrase. But arguably Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet praised a man, not a woman. He actually wrote hundreds of sonnets about this guy, his dearest friend.

　　Blood is thicker than water.

　　血浓于水。

　　在美国，很多家庭的合影照片上会镶嵌这句名言表达家庭温暖和家人之爱。然而这句话原本的表述却是“誓约之血浓于胎腹之水”，所谓的“胎腹之水”指的是家庭血缘关系，而“誓约之血”则隐喻士兵血洒疆场。这个谚语原本的意思竟然是“部队里的兄弟情要胜过父母兄弟的血亲之情”，这你敢信?!

　　This gets uttered around awkward family photos on the mantle of nearly every home in the country. The original phrase, however, meant the opposite. An earlier proverb preached, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” In this case, “water of the womb” refers to family while “blood of the covenant” means blood shed by soldiers. So really, military bonds trump your siblings and parents.