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 3370 of 3781
YEAR 1804 · Entry 3370
French
p. 6739Ce n’est pas la beauté, mais le plaisir que vous cherchez dans les écrits.
C’est qu’ils aiment mieux ce qui donne du plaisir à leur esprit que ce qui donneroit de la droiture, de l’élévation, de la force, de la vie et pour ainsi dire de la vertu.
Ceci est en effet dans les choses de goût un[e] espèce de démembrement de cette corruption dans les choses de mœurs qui fait préférer le commode à l’utile et le plaisir à la vertu.
Les esprits sont encor les mêmes, mais nourris d’autres alimens ils ont connu d’autres saveurs.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1804
p. 6740It is not beauty but pleasure that you seek in writings.
That is because they prefer what gives pleasure to their mind to what would give it uprightness, elevation, strength, life, and, so to speak, virtue.
This is indeed, in matters of taste, a kind of detached part of that corruption in matters of morals which makes one prefer the convenient to the useful and pleasure to virtue.
Minds are still the same, but, nourished on other foods, they have known other flavors.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1804 · Entry 3370
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.