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 1128 of 3781
YEAR 1798 · Entry 1128
French
p. 2255Tout est double et composé d’âme et de corps. L’univers est le corps de Dieu (mais ici le corps est dans l’âme). L’esprit a pour corps la matière. Il y a le corps du corps. Le rare a le dense pour corps et le dur est le corps du dense. Toujours et à l’infini, l’épais et le mince se tiennent par le dedans et le dehors. Tout est fait du plus et du moins. Point de corps sans âme, ni d’âme sans corps. S’il y a le corps du corps, il y a peut-être aussi l’âme de l’âme.
Nota. Comment c’est en cherchant les mots qu’on parvient jusques aux idées. Les mots sont les corps des pensées.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1798
p. 2256Everything is double and composed of soul and body. The universe is the body of God (but here the body is within the soul). Spirit has matter for its body. There is the body of the body. The rare has the dense for its body, and the hard is the body of the dense. Always and to infinity, the thick and the thin hold together through the inside and the outside. Everything is made of more and less. No body without soul, nor soul without body. If there is the body of the body, perhaps there is also the soul of the soul.
Note. How it is by searching for words that one reaches as far as ideas. Words are the bodies of thoughts.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1798 · Entry 1128
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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.