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 1612 of 3781
[On movement.] · Entry 1612
French
p. 3223[Sur le mouvement.]
Dimanche 2 mars. — Mouvement plus rapide, suppose dans le moteur plus de force mise en action. Plus un mouvement est rapide, plus il est mouvement.
Tout mouvement (quel qu’il soit) vient d’une VOLONTÉ, même celui d’une pierre qui se détache et tombe d’une voûte. Tout trait lancé part d’une corde. Toute corde est corde d’un arc, etc.
Tout ce qui est heurté donne et reçoit, ainsi que tout ce qui heurte, de même, tout ce qui s’applique ou subit une application... Le moins reçoit du plus ce qui lui manque pour être égal; en proportion de sa masse ou du nombre de ses parties, en tout, tout tend à l’équilibre.
Il n’y a que des muscles qui puissent mettre en existence un mouvement qui n’existoit pas. Tout ce qui a des muscles a de la volonté. Vie et mouvement sont deux idées associées, inseparables. C’est qu’il n’y a point de mouvement qui, en remontant à sa première cause, ne soit en effet parti de quelque être vivant et n’y tienne comme à sa source, à son principe, à son point fixe [...].
Que la génération du mouvement s’opère comme celle des [...] Que dans l’une et l’autre il y a heurtement, rencontre, compression, transmission, admission d’un côté, déperdition de l’autre. Le corps dur a la vulve fermée; le corps mou est sans parois : il ne retient rien. [...]
Les petits mouvemens, les mouvemens partiels vont se perdre et s’anéantir dans les grands et ceux-ci dans l’universel, qui les absorbe et s’en remplit. Il y a dans celui-ci des repos qui sont en lui comme des vuides, des repos, des pores, des creux et des dégorgemens.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On movement.]
p. 3224[On movement.]
Sunday, March 2. — More rapid movement supposes more force put into action in the mover. The more rapid a movement is, the more it is movement.
Every movement (whatever it may be) comes from a WILL, even that of a stone that breaks loose and falls from a vault. Every dart launched starts from a string. Every string is the string of a bow, etc.
Everything struck gives and receives, as does everything that strikes; likewise, everything that presses against something or undergoes a pressure... The less receives from the more what it lacks to be equal; in proportion to its mass or the number of its parts, in everything, everything tends toward equilibrium.
Only muscles can bring into existence a movement that did not exist. Everything that has muscles has will. Life and movement are two associated, inseparable ideas. This is because there is no movement that, traced back to its first cause, has not in fact started from some living being and does not remain attached to it as to its source, its principle, its fixed point [...].
That the generation of movement takes place like that of the [...] That in both there is collision, encounter, compression, transmission, admission on one side, loss on the other. The hard body has its vulva closed; the soft body has no walls: it retains nothing. [...]
Small movements, partial movements, go to lose and annihilate themselves in the great ones, and these in the universal, which absorbs them and fills itself with them. In it there are rests that are in it like voids, rests, pores, hollows, and discharges.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On movement.] · Entry 1612
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.