The line “The perfect is the enemy of the good” or “Better is the enemy of good enough” – who said it, and what is its exact phrasing?
IIRC, it’s Voltaire. The way I remember it is, “The good is the enemy of the best”, but I can’t find any sources.
A friend asked me about this several years ago, and I ran across the answer in one of the annotations in “The Annotated Stories of Edgar Allan Poe”. I don’t have my copy here at work, or I’d tell you. The original WAS in French, I recall, but I’m not sure if it was, in fact, Voltaire.
Yes, the famous quote is from our own Francois Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire.
I’m enlightened, hoorah! (Thanks.)
This thread is from the year 2000.
Wikipedia has a short but solid treatment of this concept:
It mentions Voltaire, the Pareto Principle (or the 80/20 rule), the golden mean, and thoughts of other wise men.
Voltaire: Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
(In his writings, a wise Italian
says that the best is the enemy of the good)