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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French Page · Branch 1999 of 3781
TRAVEL · Entry 1999
French
p. 39979 9bre 1800. (18 brum.)
Quelquefois on apprend par la réunion plus facilement que par la division et la simplicité. C’est ainsi qu’une médaille imprimant dans la mémoire le nom d’une ville donne à l’enfant plus de facilité pour retenir le nom d’une province et que partant de là comme d’un point connu il se met de proche en proche plus aisément l’univers entier dans la tête. L’histoire et la numismatique rendent l’étude de la géographie moins laborieuse quoiqu’en ce cas elle paroisse plus compliquée. Mais c’est qu’alors cette complication apparente n’est en effet qu’une réunion ou justaposition de simplicités réelles dont chacune offre à l’esprit un degré, un échelon, une branche à l’aide desquels il arrive en sautant et en se jouant. Votre analyse exacte et rigoureuse est donc souvent et en un certain sens un moyen d’ignorer plus qu’un moyen d’aprendre.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: TRAVEL
p. 3998November 9, 1800. (18 brum.)
Sometimes one learns more easily through combination than through division and simplicity. Thus a medal, imprinting the name of a city on the memory, makes it easier for a child to retain the name of a province, and, starting there as from a known point, he more easily gets the whole universe into his head, step by step. History and numismatics make the study of geography less laborious, although in this case it seems more complicated. But this is because the apparent complication is then in fact only a combination or juxtaposition of real simplicities, each of which offers the mind a step, a rung, a branch, with whose help it arrives by leaping and playing. Your exact and rigorous analysis is thus often, and in a certain sense, more a means of not knowing than a means of learning.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · TRAVEL · Entry 1999
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.