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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English Page · Branch 1850 of 3781
[On movement.] · Entry 1850
French
p. 3699Effusions d’esprit. Otent à nos pensées du poids et de l’authorité. Pourquoi. L’effusion convient au cœur et à lui seul. L’imagination même doit parler à mots séparés et par figures détachées. Elle n’a rien à épancher. Une palette est dans ses mains; et l’esprit tient une balance. Les pensées doivent se suivre, le sentiment seul doit couler.
Les hommes ont été exacts, pénétrans et profonds dans les images premières qu’ils se sont faites de toutes choses. Remontons à ces « prime intenzione ».
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On movement.]
p. 3700Effusions of the mind. They take weight and authority from our thoughts. Why. Effusion suits the heart, and the heart alone. Even imagination must speak in separate words and detached figures. It has nothing to pour out. A palette is in its hands; and the mind holds a balance. Thoughts must follow one another; feeling alone must flow.
Men have been exact, penetrating, and profound in the first images they formed of all things. Let us go back to those “prime intenzione.”
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On movement.] · Entry 1850
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.