Improving on Perfection (19th January 2008)
On the blog of Matthew Paul Thomas ([mpt]), I found the famous quote of what perfection is.
The supplied translation to English:
It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
He gives a series of reformulations, ending with:
Perfection is not when there’s no more to add, but when there’s no more to remove.
Matthew Paul Thomas.
The original text always seemed riddled with multi-negatives to me. His reformulation retains them, it just phrases them more concisely. But it’s an improvement, for sure.
Maybe my attempts are better:
- Perfection is when no more can be removed.
- Perfection is having just enough.