Voltaire did say that the best is the enemy of the good. I do not recall his saying that the inadequate is a defensible substitute for the adequate.
The ancient saw that time pressures preclude good or 'pretty' work is not finally an intellectual argument at all. It is a rationalization. Finally, and this is a little OT, I would add that the use of latin is per se impressive only to latin dropouts. Platitudes and doggerel are easy to find in latin. Those who read it with facility judge the grace and fascility of different latin passages differently. (It does have another rather different merit, identified by Gibbon long ago -- John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA
