To ensure that his brigade and its battalion rearguard were neither enveloped nor routed in withdrawing, [Prussian General] Steinmetz dispatched a fresh infantry and cavalry regiment ahead to Gosselies, thereby observing the sound principle that in rearguard actions the withdrawal of engaged units should be covered by troops already in position. [Waterloo campaign, 1815 C.E.]

— David Hamilton-Williams, Waterloo: New Perspectives, p. 159

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." — William Faulkner