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 1446 of 3781
YEAR 1799 · Entry 1446
French
p. 289110 novembre.
Leur analyse. — Ils sont donc d’habiles écuyers tranchans.
Mais un écuyer tranchant habile, est-ce celui qui coupe une pièce, une volaille par exemple, en un plus grand nombre de morceaux? ou plutôt n’est-ce pas celui qui sépare ce qui doit être séparé et laisse entier ce qui doit demeurer ensemble? — Sans doute l’habile est celui que vous dites. — L’habile et le scavant coupeur est donc, non pas celui qui connoît son couteau et qui a un couteau bien affilé, mais celui qui, connoissant bien ce qu’il coupe, opère selon les jointures et les qualités de la pièce. — Il est vrai. — Le scavant analyseur est par une raison pareille, celui qui connoît la question, soit par instinct ou par étude et qui ne divise quoi que ce soit que par les divisions intrinsèques entre lesquelles est comme distribuée l’intime essence de chaque chose.
Les autres, nous les nommerons les happe-chair de la philosophie.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1799
p. 2892November 10.
Their analysis. — They are skilled carvers at table, then.
But is a skilled carver the one who cuts a piece—a fowl, for example—into a greater number of parts? Or is it not rather the one who separates what should be separated and leaves whole what should remain together? — Certainly the skilled one is the one you describe. — The skilled and knowledgeable cutter, then, is not the one who knows his knife and has a well-sharpened knife, but the one who, knowing well what he cuts, works according to the joints and qualities of the piece. — That is true. — For the same reason, the knowledgeable analyst is the one who knows the question, whether by instinct or study, and divides anything only along the intrinsic divisions among which the inmost essence of each thing is, as it were, distributed.
The others we shall call the flesh-snatchers of philosophy.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1799 · Entry 1446
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.