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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English Page · Branch 49 of 3781
ANNÉES 1779-1783 · Entry 49
French
p. 97II
Je cherche quel rang les femmes devroient occuper dans la république. Nous en avons fait une sorte de propriété. Ce domaine que nous avons pris sur elles est-il juste ? Je me souviens du principe que nous avons établi plus haut « toutes les fois que, par quelque institution un seul des droits d’un être est blessé cette institution est mauvaise ».
J’examine ce qui est et je vois que le droit de disposer de soi-même ne peut être dans notre morale exercé légitimement qu’une seule fois par une femme dans toute une vie. Je vois dans nos mœurs une transgression perpétuelle de cette loi. Est-ce nos mœurs ou notre morale qu’il faut condamner ?
Je me rappelle un autre de nos principes : « Comment ce que les âmes innocentes peuvent commettre sans remords seroit-il un crime ? » Et je vois que celles qui transportent leurs amours et leurs caresses à d’autres hommes que celui auquel elles s’étoient d’abord livrées sont souvent douces, laborieuses, humaines et même chastes. Je les vois se livrer à leurs penchants dans la sécurité qu’inspire la vertu si rien ne peut être conu de leurs plaisirs secrets.
J’avouë que leur conduite alors me paroît une réclamation sensée plutôt qu’une violation criminelle de cette loi que je vois partout établie.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: ANNÉES 1779-1783
p. 98No individual date printed
II
I am seeking what rank women ought to hold in the republic. We have made them a kind of property. Is this dominion we have taken over them just? I remember the principle we established above: “Whenever, through some institution, even one of a being’s rights is injured, that institution is bad.”
I examine what exists, and I see that, in our morality, the right to dispose of oneself can be legitimately exercised by a woman only once in an entire lifetime. I see in our ways of life a perpetual transgression of this law. Is it our ways of life or our morality that must be condemned?
I recall another of our principles: “How could what innocent souls can commit without remorse be a crime?” And I see that women who transfer their loves and caresses to men other than the one to whom they first gave themselves are often gentle, hardworking, humane, and even chaste. I see them yield to their inclinations with the security that virtue inspires, if nothing can become known of their secret pleasures.
I confess that their conduct then seems to me a reasonable protest against that law I see established everywhere, rather than a criminal violation of it.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · ANNÉES 1779-1783 · Entry 49
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.