Like a twig on the shoulders of a mighty stream…

I have been quoting a variation of the phrase for years, and couldn’t remember where it was from.   However, the other day, Plains, Trains & Automobiles (1987) was playing and Del Griffith uttered the line.

Wright Brothers vs Samuel Pierpont Langley

I am listening to The Wright Brothers audio book by David McCullough. I have really been enjoying it. You may remember his voice from The Civil War series by Ken Burns.
Listening to the book reminded me of a talk I heard earlier by Simon Sinek where he compared the resources of the Wright brothers to Samuel Langley. In the book, McCullough noted that Langley had over 50K and a dream team for his work. Meanwhile, the Wright brothers spent less than $1000 of their own money on the entire venture.