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 2777 of 3781
[On Voltaire.] · Entry 2777
French
p. 5553Dans le style de ces premiers écrivains, les mots sont nets, sont nobles ou sont graves, ayant chacun un sens complet. La phraze a peu de membres, peu de jointures et se lit toute d’un coup d’œil, comme elle se comprend par un mouvement unique d’attention. Tout y est intelligible en soi.
Comme des gouttes lumineuses...
Leur esprit exercé à faire moins de mouvemens en avoit plus de dignité. Les nôtres ont acquis tant de rapidité d’action qu’ils sont propres aux contorsions.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On Voltaire.]
p. 5554In the style of these first writers, words are clear, are noble, or are grave, each having a complete meaning. The sentence has few limbs, few joints, and is read entire at a glance, just as it is understood by a single movement of attention. Everything in it is intelligible in itself.
Like luminous drops...
Their mind, trained to make fewer movements, had more dignity for it. Ours have acquired such rapidity of action that they are fit for contortions.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On Voltaire.] · Entry 2777
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.