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 191 of 3781
YEAR 1791 · Entry 191
French
p. 381Entendez vous ceux qui se taisent?
Les mots familiers (dit Voltaire) sont les ressorts du style. Cela est bien dit, car c’est par eux en effet que le style mord et pénètre dans le lecteur. C’est par eux que les grandes pensées ont cours en quelque manière et sont présumées de bon aloi, comme sont l’or et l’argent marqués d’une empreinte connue. Ces mots familiers inspirent, pour celui qui s’en sert, à rendre plus sensibles les pensées extraordinaires, ils inspirent, dis-je, pour lui, de la confiance. Car on reconnoît à cet emploi qu’il fait de la langue commune, un homme qui connoît la vie et les choses, qui a pu comparer, qui est de ce monde, qui est éveillé en quelque sorte et ne dort pas ou ne rêve pas. De plus, ces mots seuls font le style franc. Ils annoncent que celui qui [écrit] a depuis longtemps la pensée ou le sentiment qu’il exprime, qu’il s’en est nourri, qu’ils lui sont entièrement propres et qu’il y est tellement habitué que les expressions communes lui suffisent pour exprimer ces choses devenues vulgaires en lui par leur longue conception.
De plus encore, ce qu’on dit en paraît plus vrai. Car la clarté est tellement un des caractères de la vérité que souvent on la prend pour elle. Or rien n’est aussi clair parmi les mots que ceux qu’on nomme familiers.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1791
p. 382Do you hear those who are silent?
Familiar words, says Voltaire, are the springs of style. That is well said, for it is through them indeed that style bites and penetrates the reader. Through them great thoughts have currency, as it were, and are presumed to be of sound alloy, like gold and silver stamped with a familiar mark. These familiar words inspire, toward the man who uses them to make extraordinary thoughts more perceptible, they inspire, I say, confidence in him. For in his use of the common language one recognizes a man who knows life and things, who has been able to compare, who belongs to this world, who is awake, as it were, and does not sleep or dream. Moreover, these words alone make the style frank. They announce that the man who [writes] has long possessed the thought or feeling he expresses, that he has nourished himself on it, that they are entirely his own, and that he is so accustomed to them that common expressions suffice to express these things that have become ordinary within him through their long gestation.
Moreover, what one says seems truer for it. For clarity is so much a characteristic of truth that it is often mistaken for truth itself. Now among words none are so clear as those called familiar.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1791 · Entry 191
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.