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 1301 of 3781
YEAR 1799 · Entry 1301
French
p. 2601L’erreur, dites-vous? Mais il n’est point d’erreurs plus erreurs que celles qui blessent la physique, et où la fausseté est en quelque sorte palpable. Cependant vous les permettez. Votre langage les authorise et elles sont réellement innocentes. Ne dites-vous pas chaque jour et même ne pensez-vous pas peut-être que « le feu boit l’humidité ». Cette manière de parler et de penser est commode, nécessaire, universelle et cependant c’est une erreur dans le sens que vous donnez à ce mot.
Ce qu’il faut appeler erreur. L’erreur n’est pas une simple déception, mais un dogme, une doctrine qui se meut et nous trompe sur l’existence, sur la nature de quelque essence principale.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1799
p. 2602Error, you say? But no errors are more errors than those that offend physics, in which falsehood is in some sense palpable. Yet you allow them. Your language authorizes them, and they are really innocent. Do you not say every day, and perhaps even think, that “fire drinks moisture”? This way of speaking and thinking is convenient, necessary, universal, and yet it is an error in the sense you give that word.
What should be called error. Error is not a simple deception, but a dogma, a doctrine that moves and that deceives us about the existence, about the nature of some principal essence.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1799 · Entry 1301
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.