Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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French Page · Branch 1549 of 3781
YEAR 1800 · Entry 1549
French
p. 3097L’érudition a autant d’obscurités que la métaphysique. Ses vérités sont moins certaines et surtout moins satisfaisantes. Le livre de Dupuis prouve mieux que tout autre les incertitudes de cette partie de nos vaines études. Il y a dans ce livre beaucoup d’erreurs et des preuves incontestables qu’il y a beaucoup d’erreurs dans tous les autres. Les mémoires de l’académie des inscriptions sont seuls irrépréhensibles en ce genre par cela même qu’il y a beaucoup de recherches, peu de systhème et presque rien d’affirmatif. Tout y est proposé d’un ton sage, modéré et seulement comme probable.
Il n’y a de bon à chercher dans l’érudition que les traits : les traits de mœurs, les traits d’imagination, etc. Vouloir retrouver l’ensemble de ces antiquités rompuës est une entreprise inutile. Y réussir seroit un succès inutile.
Je m’y suis plongé, je m’y suis mouillé, je m’y suis noyé. Il faudroit traiter ces abymes comme l’hirondelle traite les eaux. Elle les raze, elle s’y joue, elle s’y trempe, mais seulement du bout des ailes.
L’homme de goût fairoit bien d’être en ce genre
Le moindre vent qui d’aventure Fait rider la face de l’eau.Il n’y a dans ce que les hommes ont pensé que quelques sommets, quelques points élevés et dominans. Le reste n’est que leur échelle, échelle que le temps a mise en pièces; et les pièces en sont perdues, anéanties. Quant même on les retrouveroit, qu’en feroit-on, qu’un échauffaudage?
Cherchons : à la bonne heure. Mais ne cherchons que le meilleur et le possible à rencontrer.
C’est dans l’érudition surtout que la moitié vaut mieux que le tout. Et la raison en est qu’on ne peut y trouver que des moitiés, des fragmens. Prétendre à reconstruire et à réintégrer tant de débris, c’est se condamner à perdre son esprit, son temps, ses études, sa vie dans la plus occupante des inutilités. On ne se repose à ce métier que lorsqu’à force de travaux on s’est aveuglé et trompé soi-même au point de croire qu’on a réussi. Quand on s’est complètement fait illusion, on achève d’arranger son systhème, on l’étale, on le publie. On est content comme Dupuis. On s’imagine qu’on a fait des livres qui vont opérer une éternelle révolution. On s’éblouit et on croit voir un jour. C’est à dire qu’en ceci on se croit en possession d’un jour plein lorsqu’on est aveugle.
L’homme qui annonce une opinion, une découverte qui anéantit toutes les autres n’a fait qu’une découverte fausse et n’a qu’une folle opinion en rien. Le genre humain entier n’a pu se tromper entièrement, et jamais un seul n’eut raison contre tous.
Chez les anciens, l’esprit se perdoit dans les cieux. Pour nous modernes, nous nous égarons terre à terre, nous nous perdons dans des taillis, nous nous engouffrons dans des mines; nos labirynthes sont de boue
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1800
p. 3098Erudition has as many obscurities as metaphysics. Its truths are less certain and, above all, less satisfying. Dupuis’s book proves better than any other the uncertainties of this part of our vain studies. There are many errors in this book, and incontestable proofs that there are many errors in all the others. The memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions alone are irreproachable in this kind, precisely because they contain much research, little system, and almost nothing asserted. Everything is put forward in a wise, moderate tone, and only as probable.
The only good things to seek in erudition are traits: traits of manners, traits of imagination, etc. To wish to recover the whole of these broken antiquities is a useless undertaking. To succeed at it would be a useless success.
I plunged into it, I got wet in it, I drowned in it. One should treat these abysses as the swallow treats the waters. She skims them, she plays over them, she dips into them, but only with her wingtips.
The man of taste would do well to be, in this kind,
The slightest wind that happens To wrinkle the face of the water.
In what men have thought there are only a few summits, a few high and commanding points. The rest is only their ladder, a ladder that time has broken into pieces; and its pieces are lost, annihilated. Even if they were found again, what could one make of them but scaffolding?
Let us search: very well. But let us search only for the best and for what can be found.
It is above all in erudition that half is better than the whole. And the reason is that one can find only halves, fragments, there. To claim to reconstruct and restore so much wreckage is to condemn oneself to waste one’s mind, one’s time, one’s studies, one’s life in the most absorbing of useless pursuits. One finds rest in this trade only when, through sheer labor, one has blinded and deceived oneself to the point of believing one has succeeded. Once one has wholly deluded oneself, one finishes arranging one’s system, displays it, publishes it. One is content, like Dupuis. One imagines one has made books that will bring about an eternal revolution. One dazzles oneself and thinks one sees daylight. That is to say, in this one believes oneself in possession of full daylight precisely when one is blind.
The man who announces an opinion, a discovery that annihilates all the others, has made only a false discovery and has only a mad opinion of no worth. The whole human race cannot have been entirely mistaken, and never was one man right against all.
Among the ancients, the mind lost itself in the heavens. As for us moderns, we go astray close to the ground, lose ourselves in thickets, plunge into mines; our labyrinths are of mud
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1800 · Entry 1549
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.