“Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover we must travel too.”
The Rubaiyat (1120)
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Omar Khayyám 94
Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer 1048–1131Related quotes

As quoted in Knight's Treasury of Illustrations (1956), p. 149

“We do not pass through the same door twice
Or return to the door through which we did not pass”

“What then? Shall I not follow in the footsteps of my predecessors? I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open the new road. Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover.”
Quid ergo? non ibo per priorum vestigia? ego vero utar via vetere, sed si propiorem planioremque invenero, hanc muniam. Qui ante nos ista moverunt non domini nostri sed duces sunt. Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata; multum ex illa etiam futuris relictum est.
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXXIII