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 3506 of 3781
[Malebranche.] · Entry 3506
French
p. 7011« ...Après qu’il eut péché (Adam), ces plaisirs qui ne faisoient que l’avertir avec respect et ces douleurs qui, sans troubler sa félicité, lui fesoient seulement connoître qu’il pouvoit la perdre et devenir malheureux, n’eurent plus pour lui les mêmes égards. » Voilà les douleurs et les plaisirs (deux modes) devenus par nécessité des êtres poétiques et actifs, sous la plume de cet homme qui a tant décrié sans distinction toutes les sortes d’imaginations! Il paroit qu’au fonds il n’étoit ennemi que de l’imagination qui admet trop les êtres logiques et de celle qui dans la pratique traite les phantômes comme de solides réalités, etc.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: [Malebranche.]
p. 7012“...After he had sinned (Adam), those pleasures that merely warned him with respect and those pains that, without disturbing his felicity, merely made him know that he could lose it and become unhappy, no longer showed him the same consideration.” There are pains and pleasures (two modes) become, by necessity, poetic and active beings under the pen of this man who has so disparaged every kind of imagination without distinction! It appears that at bottom he was the enemy only of the imagination that admits logical beings too readily and of the imagination that in practice treats phantoms as solid realities, etc.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · [Malebranche.] · Entry 3506
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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.