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Who really said it

The perfect is the enemy of the good

Written by Voltaire 1694–1778 · French Enlightenment writer & philosopher
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Voltaire wrote “le mieux est l’ennemi du bien” in the opening couplet of his verse tale ‘La Bégueule’ (1772) and used the same maxim in ‘Questions sur l’Encyclopédie’ (1770) — though in both places he credited “un sage Italien.” The familiar English is a translation of that line (more literally, “the best is the enemy of the good”).

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“The perfect is the enemy of the good” Voltaire, La Bégueule (1772)

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Provenance

The source

Work
La Bégueule, conte moral (in Contes en vers)
Author
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)
Published
1772 · Paris
Also in
Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, article “Art dramatique” (1770)

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.) ↑ the popular English keeps the maxim but drops Voltaire’s own credit to “a wise Italian”

Voltaire opens the poem by quoting the maxim, then spends the tale illustrating it — a restless woman who cannot leave well enough alone. Note “le mieux” means “the best/the better,” which the English rendered as “the perfect.”

La Bégueule, full text on Wikisource

How we know

  • The maxim appears verbatim in Voltaire’s verse tale — “Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien” — in the La Bégueule text on Wikisource ↗.
  • Wikiquote ↗ dates the line to La Bégueule (1772), notes Voltaire ascribed it to an unnamed “Italian sage,” and traces it to the proverb ‘Il meglio è nemico del bene,’ documented in Orlando Pescetti’s work in 1603.
  • Wikipedia ↗ records that Voltaire quoted the Italian proverb in the 1770 Questions sur l’Encyclopédie and that a close variant, “Le mieux est le mortel ennemi du bien,” appears in Montesquieu’s Pensées (c. 1726).
Public domain

The quote is public domain: Voltaire’s text was published in 1772 and he died in 1778. Modern English translations of the line carry no separate claim on the maxim itself.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

The record, straightened

The credit to Voltaire is essentially right — but two things are widely misremembered about it.

Voltaire the coinage

Voltaire did not coin the maxim; he explicitly quoted “un sage Italien.” It descends from the Italian proverb ‘Il meglio è nemico del bene,’ documented in Orlando Pescetti’s collection in 1603, per Wikiquote ↗, and earlier French forms circulated before 1772 — the Wiktionnaire ↗ cites a 1745 Mercure de France version and a 1757 writer calling it “ce vieux proverbe.”

“the perfect is the enemy of the good” wording

Voltaire’s word is “le mieux” — ‘the best’ or ‘the better,’ not ‘the perfect.’ The literal sense recorded on Wikipedia ↗ is “the best is the enemy of the good.”

Bottom line: Voltaire really did publish the line — in La Bégueule, 1772 ↗ — but as his rendering of an older Italian proverb, and its literal meaning is “the best is the enemy of the good.”

Context

Why it stuck

The maxim endures because it names a real trap: the pursuit of an ideal outcome can prevent a perfectly workable one. Voltaire deployed it as a moral about restlessness — his heroine cannot leave a good life alone — and the line has since become a staple of engineering, medicine, economics, and management, usually as a caution against over-optimizing.

Its journey is itself an example of the idea: a compact old proverb, ‘good enough’ as it was, outlived every attempt to improve on it — and it reached the English-speaking world through a slightly imperfect translation that stuck.

Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom Simplicity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Perfect is the enemy of gooden.wikipedia.org

Overview of the maxim: Voltaire’s 1770 and 1772 uses, the Italian proverb, and Montesquieu’s c.1726 variant.
Voltaire (Wikiquote)en.wikiquote.org

Sources the line to La Bégueule (1772), the “Italian sage” framing, and Pescetti’s 1603 proverb.
La Bégueule — full textfr.wikisource.org

Primary source: Voltaire’s poem, whose opening couplet contains the maxim.
le mieux est l’ennemi du bienfr.wiktionary.org

Etymology of the French expression, with pre-1772 attestations (1745, 1757) predating Voltaire.
‘The perfect is the enemy of the good’vitabrevis.americanancestors.org

Popular account tracing the phrase to a 1603 Italian proverb popularized by Voltaire in 1770.

The true author

About Voltaire

Voltaire

1694–1778 · French Enlightenment writer & philosopher

Voltaire (pen name of François-Marie Arouet) was a leading figure of the French Enlightenment, famous for his wit, his advocacy of civil liberties, and works such as ‘Candide’ and the ‘Dictionnaire philosophique.’ He was a prolific aphorist who often reworked older sayings — and, characteristically, he introduced this one by crediting “a wise Italian” rather than claiming it as his own.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Voltaire. “La Bégueule, conte moral.” In Contes en vers. Paris, 1772. Opening lines: “Dans ses écrits un sage Italien / Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.”

MLA (9th ed.)

Voltaire. “La Bégueule, conte moral.” Contes en vers, 1772.

APA (7th ed.)

Voltaire. (1772). La Bégueule, conte moral. In Contes en vers.

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