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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Facing Pages · Branch 1162 of 3781
YEAR 1798 · Entry 1162
French
p. 232310 décembre.
L’accent et l’humeur. Il y a par l’accent inégalité dans le parler. Il y a angle dans la rondeur. Les courtisans habitués à se contraindre n’avoient point d’accent. Des âmes toujours égales, toujours calmes, toujours élevées, expriment aussi sans accent leurs sentimens et leurs pensées. Plus un peuple est humoriste, plus il est vif et brusque, plus il a de ce qu’on appelle accent. Son accent annonce ce en quoi il est peu contenu. Jamais homme éminent n’a gardé pur, c’est à dire entier, l’accent de ses compatriotes.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1798
p. 2324December 10.
Accent and mood. Through accent there is unevenness in speaking. There is an angle in roundness. Courtiers accustomed to constraining themselves had no accent. Souls always even, always calm, always elevated, also express their feelings and their thoughts without accent. The more a people is subject to moods, the more lively and abrupt it is, the more it has of what is called accent. Its accent reveals what it has little restraint in. No eminent man has ever kept pure, that is, entire, the accent of his compatriots.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1798 · Entry 1162
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.