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 1609 of 3781
YEAR 1800 · Entry 1609
French
p. 3217Toute pierre est une pâte qui s’est séchée. Tout métal est un corps en fusion qui s’est refroidi et durci. Toute matière est ductile, ou fusible ou malléable, ou tout peut être divisé en parties invisibles et impalpables par l’écrasement et la pulvérisation, si c’est un corps solide, et par l’évaporation s’il est déjà fluide. Le marbre, le plomb peuvent devenir un nuage, d’évaporation en évaporation.
Le bois est composé de lignes ou mesches apliquées les unes aux autres; il est fusible. La pierre est faite de grains de poussières aglomérés; elle est fusible, le crystal est une eau durcie. La pierre ponce est calcinée : c’est le charbon blanc d’une pierre; elle a peu d’eau. L’eau est un liquide crystal comme les poètes l’ont dit.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1800
p. 3218Every stone is a paste that has dried. Every metal is a body in fusion that has cooled and hardened. All matter is ductile, or fusible, or malleable, or everything can be divided into invisible, impalpable parts by crushing and pulverization if it is a solid body, and by evaporation if it is already fluid. Marble and lead can become a cloud, from evaporation to evaporation.
Wood is composed of lines or strands laid against one another; it is fusible. Stone is made of agglomerated grains of dust; it is fusible, crystal is hardened water. Pumice is calcined: it is a stone’s white charcoal; it has little water. Water is a liquid crystal, as the poets have said.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1800 · Entry 1609
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.