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 2784 of 3781
[On Voltaire.] · Entry 2784
French
p. 5567[…] février.
« ...C’est l’image du despotisme », dit Montesquieu. Ajoutez : et comme le sauvage sacrifie sa subsistance à sa faim, le despotisme sacrifie sa puissance à son pouvoir. (Expressions trop menuës). Son règne dévore le règne de ses successeurs.
...sont trop menuës et ont une finesse qui paroit trop grammaticale. Relevons-les par celles ci : Chaque despote a un règne qui dévore celui de ses successeurs. Nous rehaussons notre pensée. Et si nous ajoutons encore : celui de ses prédécesseurs et le sien propre, nous y mettons un complément d’énergie et de grandeur par cette image d’une avidité qui se dévore elle même et dévore les siècles.
Et, dans un autre style : c’est un Gargantua qui se mange lui même.
Si à cette image j’ajoutois les mots : dans sa voracité, ou plus encore : dans sa voracité insatiable, j’affaiblirois l’image et je l’éloignerois de l’attention au moment même où je la lui aurois présentée fortement et toute entière. Quand l’image est forte et complette, il faut en général en détacher la pensée comme je ferois si je disois après les mots se mange lui même : Son insatiable avidité, en alinéa.
Et dans un autre [style] encore, pour la moralité : Quand on ne peut vivre que d’œufs, il ne faut pas manger les poules qu’on a.
Règle générale : joignez la pensée à l’image, mais ne les mêlez pas, de peur que l’une n’affaiblisse l’autre.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [On Voltaire.]
p. 5568February […].
“...That is the image of despotism,” says Montesquieu. Add: and as the savage sacrifices his subsistence to his hunger, despotism sacrifices its might to its power. (Expressions too minute). His reign devours the reign of his successors.
...are too minute and have a subtlety that seems too grammatical. Let us raise them with these: Every despot has a reign that devours that of his successors. We heighten our thought. And if we add further: that of his predecessors and his own, we give it a complement of energy and grandeur through this image of a greed that devours itself and devours the centuries.
And, in another style: it is a Gargantua who eats himself.
If I added to this image the words: in his voracity, or still more: in his insatiable voracity, I would weaken the image and remove it from the attention at the very moment I had presented it strongly and entire. When the image is strong and complete, one must generally detach the thought from it, as I would do if, after the words eats himself, I said: His insatiable greed, in a new paragraph.
And in yet another [style], for the moral: When one can live only on eggs, one must not eat the hens one has.
General rule: join the thought to the image, but do not mingle them, for fear that one may weaken the other.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [On Voltaire.] · Entry 2784
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.