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 2446 of 3781
[LOCKE] · Entry 2446
French
p. 489123 mars.
Nota. Qu’on a beau faire et que c’est toujours une à une que les lecteurs entendent, admettent ou rejettent nos pensées. Le seul moyen de les leur communiquer toutes ensemble et de les disposer dans une telle perspective et de les éclairer d’un rayon de lumière tel que tout esprit puisse les voir toutes à la fois d’un seul coup d’œil.
Qu’il faut faire aimer ce qu’on dit; et que pour cela il faut l’arranger tellement que l’on puisse l’aimer soi même et y déposer son amour.
* Voilà le carillon qui part, le mot qui est le signe de la détente, image qui fait retentir la pensée.
* L’esprit avale sans mâcher; il s’engraisse, il s’empâte, mais il se nourrit mal.
* On croit entendre un carillon d’horloge qui, à des temps fixes, répète un air qu’on a mis dans son méchanisme.
* Il faut bien distinguer la subtilité où l’esprit est conduit par la nature des sujets de celle qu’il se forge, pour ainsi dire, par sa propre exiguité.
* Tous ces projets de mouvement en imagination ont quelque chose de puéril; et il faut les laisser à l’abbé Lubersac. En résolution et en exécution, ils deviennent imposans par la consistance, qualité par laquelle seule ils peuvent exister.
(Tome 3). Il parloit comme un gentilh.; maintenant comme un ennobli.
Pag. 34. Esprits subtils. Il n’y eut jamais d’esprit pénétrant qui ne fût un esprit subtil. Et les subtilités (non de raisonnement, mais de pensée) sont indispensables. Vous en avez beaucoup, monsieur; mais, parce que vous employez des mots presque matériels, vous croyez être plus solide.
Pag. 38. Pourquoi Dieu ne détruiroit-il pas?
* En effet, ils veulent bannir l’émulation et ils proposent des prix pour la course. Que le but soit la science ou un gâteau, qu’on exerce l’esprit ou les jambes, il y a toujours concurrence et par conséquent émulation.
Pag. 84. « La Médicis », « la Maintenon » : ces expressions dédaigneuses étonnent dans l’auteur.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [LOCKE]
p. 4892March 23.
Nota. That whatever we do, it is always one by one that readers understand, admit, or reject our thoughts. The only means of communicating them all together and of arranging them in such a perspective and illuminating them with such a ray of light that every mind can see them all at once in a single glance.
That one must make what one says loved; and that to do so one must arrange it in such a way that one can love it oneself and lay one’s love within it.
* There goes the chime, the word that signals the release, an image that makes thought resound.
* The mind swallows without chewing; it grows fat, it grows heavy, but it is poorly nourished.
* One thinks one hears a clock’s chime repeating at fixed times a tune put into its mechanism.
* One must carefully distinguish the subtlety to which the mind is led by the nature of its subjects from that which it forges for itself, so to speak, through its own smallness.
* All these projects of movement in the imagination have something childish about them; and they must be left to the abbé Lubersac. In resolution and execution they become imposing through solidity, the quality through which alone they can exist.
(Volume 3). He spoke like a nobleman; now like a man ennobled.
Page 34. Subtle minds. There has never been a penetrating mind that was not a subtle mind. And subtleties (not of reasoning, but of thought) are indispensable. You have many of them, sir; but because you use almost material words, you believe you are more solid.
Page 38. Why would God not destroy?
* Indeed, they want to banish emulation, and they offer prizes for the race. Whether the goal is knowledge or a cake, whether one exercises the mind or the legs, there is always competition and consequently emulation.
Page 84. “La Médicis,” “la Maintenon”: these disdainful expressions are surprising in the author.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [LOCKE] · Entry 2446
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.