Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 1478 of 3781
YEAR 1799 · Entry 1478
French
p. 29556 décembre.
— On trouble ainsi le repos de son propre esprit, et le repos de l’esprit des autres.
Si je suis borgne ou blond et que vous le scachiez, appellerez-vous cela science? et si on dit que j’ai deux bons yeux et que je scais voir et que vous publiez le contraire, aurez-vous pour cela la prétention de répandre la vérité?
Il y a le vrai et la vérité. Tout ce qu’on scait n’est pas science. Ne confondons pas tous ces mots, non plus que ceux d’erreur, qu’on applique mal à propos à tout ce qui est faux. Le vrai, le faux tombent sur les faits, le réel sur les existences; la science et la vérité n’ont pour objet que les essences. Les ignorer ou les connoître est lumière ou obscurité. Les méconnoître est ténèbres, erreur, faux scavoir et le pire des malheurs et des égaremens de l’esprit.
(Distinguer aussi la réalité de la vérité.)
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1799
p. 2956December 6.
— In this way one disturbs the repose of one’s own mind, and the repose of other minds.
If I am blind in one eye or blond and you know it, will you call that knowledge? and if people say that I have two good eyes and know how to see, and you proclaim the contrary, will you therefore claim to be spreading truth?
There is what is true, and there is truth. Not everything one knows is knowledge. Let us not confuse all these words, nor those for error, which are wrongly applied to everything false. The true and the false bear on facts, the real on existences; knowledge and truth have only essences for their object. To be ignorant of them or to know them is light or obscurity. To misconceive them is darkness, error, false knowledge, and the worst of the mind’s misfortunes and wanderings.
(Distinguish reality from truth as well.)
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1799 · Entry 1478
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Joubert’s notebooks return to the work of thinking and writing, the demands of friendship, and questions of faith, beauty and conduct. This edition pairs the French with a new English translation, preserving the order of the chosen source and the unfinished character of its fragments. Dates and source references allow readers to follow a thought through time or return to its printed context.
Historical Text and Translation
The French text follows André Beaunier’s 1938 edition of Les Carnets de Joseph Joubert, published by Gallimard from Joubert’s autograph manuscripts. Volume I presents the entries on printed pages 32–475. French and English are aligned paragraph by paragraph, retaining the source order, printed dates and page references so readers can return to the facsimile.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new English translation directly from the French, preserving Joubert’s distinctions, recurring images, ambiguities and unfinished thoughts. Translator’s notes clarify wording, references and uncertain readings: Essential keeps notes that help explain a passage, while All includes technical detail. Annotations from the 1938 source edition remain distinct from the new translator’s notes.
Rights
The linked facsimile records identify the French source as public domain in the United States. The new English translation and editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos, with source annotations and new editorial contributions credited separately. This edition pairs the complete French notebooks with an independent English translation, preserving the distinction between Joubert’s text and its accompanying notes.