“The best is the enemy of the good.”

—  Voltaire , La Bégueule

Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.
"La Bégueule" (Contes, 1772)
Variant translations:<p>The perfect is the enemy of the good.
The better is the enemy of the good.
translation of earlier traditional Italian Il meglio è nemico del bene, attested since 1603: Proverbi italiani (Italian Proverbs), by Orlando Pescetti http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/orlando-pescetti/ (c. 1556 – c. 1624) ( p. 30 https://books.google.com/books?id=0fkXqSJmiyEC&pg=PA30-IA2&q=%22Il%20meglio%20%C3%A8%20nemico%20del%20bene%22#v=onepage, p. 45 https://books.google.com/books?id=IRPam75-SI4C&pg=RA1-PT45&q=%22Il%20meglio%20%C3%A8%20nemico%20del%20bene%22#v=onepage)
Voltaire cites this saying in his poem "La Bégueule" ("The prude woman") while ascribing it to an unnamed "Italian sage"; he also gives the saying (without attribution) in Italian (Il meglio è l'inimico del bene [note spelling difference: l'inimico instead of nemico for "[the] enemy") in the article "Art Dramatique" ("Dramatic Art", 1770) in the Dictionnaire philosophique
Citas

Original

Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien

Contes et romans
Variant: Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.

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Voltaire 167
French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694–1778

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