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 2000 of 3781
TRAVEL · Entry 2000
French
p. 3999Des mots qui occupent tellement l’attention qu’il la détournent de la pensée. (Vid. supra.) Ces mots étonnans, éclatans, frappans, sont aussi quelquefois le seul moyen qu’on ait de rendre la pensée sensible. Elle ne peut se manifester que par eux. Ils sont propres surtout (et eux seuls le sont) ils sont seuls propres à manifester les attitudes et les mouvemens de l’esprit, opérations aussi agréables et aussi utiles et aussi importantes à connoître que les pensées elles-mêmes.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: TRAVEL
p. 4000On words that occupy attention so completely that they turn it away from thought. (Vid. supra.) These astonishing, dazzling, striking words are also sometimes the only means one has of making thought perceptible. It can manifest itself only through them. They are especially fit (and they alone are) they alone are fit to manifest the attitudes and movements of the mind, operations as pleasant and as useful and as important to know as the thoughts themselves.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · TRAVEL · Entry 2000
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.