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 513 of 3781
YEAR 1796 · Entry 513
French
p. 10251ᵉʳ mars.
Il se fait alors comme une exfoliation dans la partie morale et intellectuelle du cerveau. Les notions et les opinions se séparent comme par couches de la substance médullaire et les premières impressions qui y sont plus intimement unies et y subsistent jusqu’à la fin, revivent et reparoissent d’une manière plus sensible, à proportion que les autres s’en séparent et les y laissent comme à découvert.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1796
p. 1026March 1.
There then takes place something like an exfoliation in the moral and intellectual part of the brain. Notions and opinions separate as though in layers from the medullary substance, and the first impressions, which are more intimately united with it and remain there to the end, revive and reappear more perceptibly as the others separate from it and leave them as though exposed.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1796 · Entry 513
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.