War & Peace Quote by Edwin Louis Cole

“Good is often the enemy of best” is a tidy warning shot aimed at complacency, not a pep-talk for perfectionists. Cole, a self-help and leadership writer with strong roots in the men’s movement and Christian motivational culture, understood how easily “good enough” becomes a moral alibi: you did the decent thing, you hit the baseline, you can stop now. The line works because it flips a comforting word into a saboteur. “Good” isn’t the goal; it’s the excuse.

The subtext is about trade-offs disguised as virtue. We tend to treat “good” as inherently righteous, which makes it hard to interrogate. A good job, a good plan, a good relationship: each can be a holding pattern that feels responsible while quietly avoiding risk, rigor, or the discomfort of growth. Cole’s phrasing is deliberately combative - “enemy” - implying active resistance. Not “distraction,” not “detour,” but an adversary with agency. That’s psychologically accurate: once you’ve achieved “good,” the incentives to push further collapse, and the ego gets protective.

Context matters: this isn’t Voltaire’s ironic “perfect is the enemy of good,” which critiques utopian overreach. Cole aims in the opposite direction, at the culture of settling. His version speaks to workplaces that ship safe products, leaders who avoid hard feedback, and individuals who confuse stability with success. It’s a productivity maxim with a moral spine: don’t let adequacy masquerade as character.