<P> This sentiment in English literature can be traced back to Shakespeare, In his tragedy, King Lear, the Duke of Albany warns of "striving to better, oft we mar what's well" and in Sonnet 103: </P> <P> Were it not sinful then, striving to mend, To mar the subject that before was well? </P> <P> A widely accepted interpretation of "The perfect is the enemy of the good" is that one might never complete a task if one has decided not to stop until it is perfect: completing the project well is made impossible by striving to complete it perfectly . Closely related is the Nirvana fallacy, in which people never even begin an important task because they feel reaching perfection is too hard . </P> <P> The original meaning may have been that attempts to improve something may actually make it worse, similar to the sentiment expressed in the maxim "leave well enough alone". Neither the Shakespeare nor the Voltaire construction suggests perfection, only improvement, lending support to this interpretation . </P>

Don't let perfection be the enemy of good