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 46 of 3781
ANNÉES 1779-1783 · Entry 46
French
p. 91N° 5
— L’opinion publique a grand besoin d’être éclairée sur deux grands objets, la morale et les arts.
— Il faudroit faire les plus petites choses par les plus grands motifs et voir dans les plus petits objets les plus grands rapports. Voilà le grand moyen de perfectionner en soi l’homme sensible et l’homme intellectuel.
— Le plus humble stile donne le goût du beau, s’il exprime la situation d’une âme grande et belle.
— Imaginés l’ordre universel. Tout ce qui y est conforme dans les idées, dans les images, dans les sentimens, dans les institutions est beau ; tout ce qui y est conforme dans les actions, dans les projets, dans les entreprises est bon. Voilà la règle.
— La durée est un des premiers moyens de la perfectibilité de l’homme.
— Le beau parfait exerce à la fois toutes les facultés de l’homme développées dans toute leur étendue.
— Il faudroit, pour écrire parfaitement, écrire et penser comme écriroit et penseroit l’homme parfait dans sa constitution au moment où toutes ses facultés seroient en lui parfaitement ordonnées. Cette situation seroit possible dans cet état de l’âme où toutes ses passions seroient développées dans toute leur force et leur étendue et combinées dans un équilibre parfait.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: ANNÉES 1779-1783
p. 92No individual date printed
No. 5
— Public opinion is in great need of enlightenment on two great subjects: morality and the arts.
— We should do the smallest things from the greatest motives, and see the greatest relations in the smallest objects. This is the great means of perfecting in ourselves the man of feeling and the man of intellect.
— The humblest style gives a taste for the beautiful if it expresses the condition of a great and beautiful soul.
— Imagine the universal order. Everything in ideas, images, feelings, and institutions that accords with it is beautiful; everything in actions, plans, and undertakings that accords with it is good. That is the rule.
— Duration is one of the first means of man’s perfectibility.
— Perfect beauty exercises at once all of man’s faculties, developed to their full extent.
— To write perfectly, we would have to write and think as a man perfect in his constitution would write and think at the moment when all his faculties were perfectly ordered within him. This condition would be possible in that state of the soul in which all its passions were developed in their full strength and extent, and combined in perfect balance.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · ANNÉES 1779-1783 · Entry 46
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.