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 1332 of 3781
YEAR 1799 · Entry 1332
French
p. 266325 avril.
Homère appellé par les Latins ingeniorum fontem. Cet océan de poésie. Aristote est un océan d’intelligence. Source du scavoir.
Aristotelès. C’est de lui comme d’une source que le scavoir a découlé dans les siècles qui l’ont suivi. Si tous les livres se perdoient et que les siens nous demeurassent, on pourroit retrouver toutes les sciences, tous les arts. Rien ne seroit perdu, à proprement parler, si vous en exceptez Platon, quelques poëtes et quelques orateurs.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1799
p. 2664April 25.
Homer called ingeniorum fontem by the Latins. That ocean of poetry. Aristotle is an ocean of intelligence. Source of knowledge.
Aristotelès. From him, as from a spring, knowledge flowed into the centuries that followed him. If all books were lost and his remained to us, we could recover all the sciences, all the arts. Nothing, strictly speaking, would be lost, except Plato, a few poets, and a few orators.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1799 · Entry 1332
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.