See perfect is the enemy of good in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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{ "categories": [ "English entries with incorrect language header", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English proverbs", "English terms derived from Italian", "Entries with translation boxes", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries", "Terms with German translations", "Translation table header lacks gloss" ], "derived": [ { "word": "make the perfect the enemy of the good" }, { "word": "let the perfect be the enemy of the good" } ], "etymology_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "en", "2": "it", "3": "-" }, "expansion": "Italian", "name": "der" } ], "etymology_text": "A variant of the older the best is the enemy of the good, popularized by Voltaire in French as le mieux est l’ennemi du bien, itself a translation of the Italian proverb il meglio è nemico del bene.", "head_templates": [ { "args": {}, "expansion": "perfect is the enemy of good", "name": "en-proverb" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "proverb", "related": [ { "word": "half a loaf is better than none" }, { "word": "leave well enough alone" } ], "senses": [ { "glosses": [ "Insistence on perfection often precludes the opportunity for something worthwhile." ], "links": [ [ "Insistence", "insistence" ], [ "perfection", "perfection" ], [ "often", "often" ], [ "preclude", "preclude" ], [ "opportunity", "opportunity" ], [ "something", "something" ], [ "worthwhile", "worthwhile" ] ] }, { "glosses": [ "Insistence on perfection precludes gradual improvement through compromises." ], "links": [ [ "Insistence", "insistence" ], [ "perfection", "perfection" ], [ "preclude", "preclude" ], [ "gradual", "gradual" ], [ "improvement", "improvement" ], [ "compromise", "compromise" ] ] } ], "synonyms": [ { "word": "better is the enemy of good" }, { "word": "the best is the enemy of the good" }, { "word": "the better is the enemy of the good" }, { "word": "perfection is the enemy of good" }, { "word": "perfect is the enemy of good enough" }, { "word": "the perfect is the enemy of the good" } ], "translations": [ { "code": "de", "lang": "German", "sense": "Translations", "word": "das Bessere ist der Feind des Guten" } ], "wikipedia": [ "Dictionnaire philosophique", "Voltaire" ], "word": "perfect is the enemy of good" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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