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 1583 of 3781
YEAR 1800 · Entry 1583
French
p. 316516 février.
Le temps est un mot abstrait. L’éternité tient moins de l’abstraction que de la métaphysique, parce qu’elle rappelle d’abord à l’esprit un monde et un attribut de ce monde que nous concevons être, et qu’il nous transporte au delà de etc. — Chose remarquable, l’immensité est moins abstrait que l’espace. L’Etre suprême est un mot abstrait; Dieu ne l’est pas et mon Dieu encore moins. Le langage des mystiques qu’on seroit tenté de croire si abstrait ne l’est pas ceppendant : il n’est pas métaphysique... Tout langage proprement abstrait a au contraire, pour l’esprit, cette espèce de dureté et de désagrément que la surface de la matière froide et mal limée a pour les sens. Le monde intellectuel ne fournit point d’abstraction à l’esprit : c’est le monde réel. Toute abstraction se fait par un dépouillement et ne peut s’employer, servir, prendre du corps, de l’apparence que par un certain remplissage. Figurez-vous des peaux de milliers d’hommes empaillées et réunies en un seul tronc, et vous aurez l’espèce humaine.
La raison est un mot abstrait. La douceur, la bonté ne le sont point. Ils ne sont pas métaphysiques, mais affectifs, genre qu’on n’a pas assés remarqué et qu’il faudroit adopter pour l’exactitude de la division.
Il semble que les noms des qualités qui tiennent à l’affectif sont seulement ceux des qualités qui sont aimables. Les noms de celles qui ne le sont pas se rapprochent de l’abstraction, comme sévérité, austérité, méchanceté.
En dernier mot, tout ce qui ne tient qu’aux opérations de l’esprit raisonnable dresse etc. Tout ce qui n’exprime que la doctrine des écoles et ce qu’elles ont établi est abstrait seulement. Ce qui tient à l’homme entier et à la manière dont il est conçu par tous les esprits est abstrait, affectif ou simplement métaphysique, mais jamais seulement abstrait. L’école (non pas l’école ancienne et des collèges), mais la nôtre propre, la moderne, celle où l’étude réunit tous les lettrés, l’école, dis-je, a rempli notre esprit d’abstractions, et notre esprit en a rempli notre langue, nos mœurs, nos loix.
Ces abstractions nous ont gâtés; et quand je dis nous, je dis moi; moi aussi.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1800
p. 3166February 16.
Time is an abstract word. Eternity partakes less of abstraction than of metaphysics, because it first calls to mind a world and an attribute of that world which we conceive as being, and it transports us beyond etc. — Remarkably, immensity is less abstract than space. The Supreme Being is an abstract word; God is not, and my God still less. The language of the mystics, which one would be tempted to think so abstract, is nevertheless not so: it is not metaphysical... All properly abstract language, on the contrary, has for the mind that kind of hardness and unpleasantness that the surface of cold, poorly filed matter has for the senses. The intellectual world supplies the mind with no abstraction: it is the real world. Every abstraction is made by a stripping away and can be employed, serve, take on body and appearance only through a certain filling in. Imagine the skins of thousands of men stuffed and joined into a single trunk, and you will have the human species.
Reason is an abstract word. Gentleness and goodness are not. They are not metaphysical but affective, a kind that has not been sufficiently noticed and that should be adopted for exactness in the division.
It seems that the names of qualities belonging to the affective are only those of qualities that are lovable. The names of those that are not approach abstraction, as severity, austerity, wickedness.
Finally, everything that relates only to the operations of the rational mind sets up etc. Everything that expresses only the doctrine of the schools and what they have established is abstract only. What relates to the whole man and to the way he is conceived by all minds is abstract, affective, or simply metaphysical, but never merely abstract. The school (not the ancient school and that of the colleges), but our own, the modern one, where study brings all the learned together, the school, I say, has filled our mind with abstractions, and our mind has filled our language, our manners, our laws with them.
These abstractions have spoiled us; and when I say us, I say me; me too.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1800 · Entry 1583
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.