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Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I[LOCKE] · Entry 2443

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[LOCKE] · Entry 2443

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 4885

20 mars.

Il en est de l’esprit comme du courrier dont Horace a dit : Cui male si palpere recalcitrat undique tutus. Il faut scavoir le manier.

* Il se trompe avec une force!!

Pag. 192. O singulière conséquence! Il semble qu’on y tombe par un casse-col et l’esprit se sent quelque chose de démis.

* Mais, à ce compte, la société constituée, comme il l’appelle, est impeccable.

Pag. 215. Don. Mais tout ce à quoi la volonté n’a pas de part n’est pas un don.

* Pourquoi ne fait-il pas de [la] littérature une profession sociale? C’est qu’il la juge inutile.

* Donc. Tous ses donc impatientent et donnent envie de le contredire.

* Il n’y a dans tout cela que l’attitude et l’insistance d’un homme qui affirme fortement.

Pag. 120. Mais ce don, que lui coûte-t-il? En le donnant, de quoi se prive t’il et que donne t’il là qui soit à lui?

Il part toujours de ce qu’il appelle ses principes comme s’il partoit de ceux du lecteur, avec la même assurance... Cela fait frémir le bon sens.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [LOCKE]

p. 4886

March 20.

The mind is like the steed of which Horace said: Cui male si palpere recalcitrat undique tutus. One must know how to handle it.

* With what strength he deceives himself!!

Page 192. O singular conclusion! One seems to tumble into it down a breakneck passage, and the mind feels something in it dislocated.

* But on that reckoning, constituted society, as he calls it, is impeccable.

Page 215. Gift. But anything in which the will has no part is not a gift.

* Why does he not make literature a social profession? Because he judges it useless.

* Therefore. All his therefores try one’s patience and make one want to contradict him.

* In all this there is only the posture and insistence of a man making emphatic assertions.

Page 120. But this gift, what does it cost him? In giving it, what does he deprive himself of, and what does he give that is his?

He always starts from what he calls his principles as though he were starting from the reader’s, with the same assurance... It makes good sense shudder.

T114.The facsimile prints courrier, ordinarily a mounted messenger or traveler, rather than coursier, a steed. Steed is a contextual interpretation suggested by the horse image in the following quotation, not a silent change to the French. The Latin is retained as quoted; its sense is: if you stroke him badly, he kicks back, secure on every side. The line occurs in Horace, Satires II.1.20.

T115.Casse-col is a dangerous passage or place where one risks a fall. The English retains both the fall and the mind’s sense of something dislocated; conclusion renders conséquence as the result of reasoning.

T116.The source editor supplies [la] in de [la] littérature. English does not naturally take an article before literature here, so the supplied French article has no bracketed English counterpart; the intervention is recorded in this note.

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.