See page 150, volume I. One should have spoken more modestly of these scholars and these sciences.
“The heart is expert in deceptions, and whoever (says Chateaubriand) was nourished at woman’s breast has drunk from the cup of illusions.”
He calls the tomb a cradle. See 83, volume I.
Some Diderot, some Mme de Staël, and some Saint Pierre melted together, but in such a way that the last strongly predominates: there is Chateaubriand in his entirety.
And in truth I sometimes do not know whether there is rouge here or color.
April 28.
Whoever does not wish to be happy is not happy.
April 29.
—seasoned with I know not what ambrosia.
April 30.
Of habit. (And of the necessity of habit in the composition of works.)
May 4. (At Paris.)
...I speak with my flanks.
Kant. What resembles the art of making labyrinths. Long circuits and artifices, etc. Palisades. Seem to enlarge the place through the multiplicity of buildings.
May 5.
Youth carries with it a suppleness that makes it fit to cling to everything,—to mold itself, etc.
May 7.
Charm and grace. In charm, more liveliness; in grace, more gentleness.
May 10.
In any music, not everything is music, and in any poem, not everything is poetry.
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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · Book Mode · Diotimos