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 1177 of 3781
YEAR 1798 · Entry 1177
French
p. 2353Celui qui a pour l’ordre visible un tel amour et une telle attention qu’il ne peut rencontrer hors de place ou de sa forme rien de palpable sans le redresser ou le ranger, et celui qui a une telle sagacité de l’ordre moral et une telle détermination à le rétablir ou à le maintenir qu’il ne peut approcher un affligé sans lui offrir la consolation, un indigent sans être porté au secours... Le premier a l’œil bon et l’autre l’imagination nette. Ils voient juste tous les deux. L’un a la justesse géométrique, l’autre la justesse morale, qualité autrement utile, et même autrement transcendante et autrement étendue que la première, car elle embrasse plus d’objets et des objets moins apparens et des objets plus importans avec la même exactitude.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1798
p. 2354He who has such love and attention for visible order that he cannot encounter anything palpable out of place or out of shape without straightening or arranging it, and he who has such discernment of moral order and such determination to restore or maintain it that he cannot approach someone afflicted without offering consolation, someone needy without being moved to help... The first has a good eye, and the other a clear imagination. Both see rightly. One has geometric exactness, the other moral exactness, a quality far more useful, and even far more transcendent and far more extensive than the first, for it embraces more objects, and less apparent objects, and more important objects, with the same exactness.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1798 · Entry 1177
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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.