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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French Page · Branch 1513 of 3781
YEAR 1799 · Entry 1513
French
p. 3025Il est des fables qui absorbent toute l’attention de l’esprit humain et le rendent incapable (quand il en est persuadé) de s’occuper de toute autre chose. Il en est d’autres qui s’allient à tout, qui laissent à l’esprit une liberté commode, qui ne le chargent d’aucun poids, d’aucune gêne, qui se fondent et s’entremêlent aisément avec toutes les opinions ou morales ou physiques que peut donner une solide science. Celles-là sont les meilleures, les autres sont les pires.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1799
p. 3026There are fables that absorb the whole attention of the human mind and make it incapable (when it believes them) of attending to anything else. There are others that combine with everything, that leave the mind an easy freedom, that burden it with no weight, no constraint, that melt and mingle readily with all the moral or physical opinions that sound knowledge can give. Those are the best; the others are the worst.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1799 · Entry 1513
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.