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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English Page · Branch 3275 of 3781
[On Voltaire.] · Entry 3275
French
p. 654922 décembre.
Aristote a prétendu que la colère étoit bonne à la vertu et à la raison. Il la croyoit indispensable à la politique pendant la guerre et au gouvernement de la famille pendant la paix. « Il faut (disoit il) s’en servir à la guerre, non comme d’un bon capitaine, mais comme d’un brave soldat. » C’est là (disoit le p. André) plaider pour la nature humaine.
Il paroit même, par ce qu’Aristote dit de la colère, que les Grecs étoient un peuple naturellement modéré et placable. Les Romains l’étoient beaucoup moins. Jamais le trait de la lamproye ne seroit arrivé à Athènes, eût-elle été toute puissante. En tout, Aristote est mille fois plus sensé et plus homme du monde là dessus que Sénèque qui ne parle qu’en déclamateur et en homme d’école.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On Voltaire.]
p. 6550December 22.
Aristotle maintained that anger was good for virtue and reason. He believed it indispensable to politics in wartime and to the government of the family in peacetime. “One must,” he said, “use it in war, not as a good captain, but as a brave soldier.” That, Father André said, was pleading the cause of human nature.
It even appears, from what Aristotle says of anger, that the Greeks were a naturally moderate and placable people. The Romans were much less so. The affair of the lamprey would never have happened in Athens, even had she been all-powerful. In everything, Aristotle is a thousand times more sensible and more a man of the world on this subject than Seneca, who speaks only as a declaimer and a man of the school.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On Voltaire.] · Entry 3275
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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.