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 56 of 3781
ANNÉES 1779-1783 · Entry 56
French
p. 111IX
Nous avons reçu le monde comme un héritage qu’il n’est permis à aucun de nous de détériorer, mais que chaque génération au contraire est obligée de laisser meilleur à la postérité.
— Lorsqu’il naît dans une nation un individu capable de produire une grande pensée, il en naît un autre capable de la comprendre et de l’admirer.
Les nobles à Athènes se nommaient en grec Εὐπάτριδες c’est-à-dire nés de bons pères. Thésée voulut que ceux-là occupassent dans l’état le premier rang. Vid. Plutarq.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: ANNÉES 1779-1783
p. 112No individual date printed
IX
We have received the world as an inheritance that none of us is permitted to impair, but that each generation, on the contrary, is obliged to leave better to posterity.
— When an individual capable of producing a great thought is born in a nation, another is born capable of understanding and admiring it.
The nobles at Athens were called in Greek Εὐπάτριδες, that is, born of good fathers. Theseus wished them to occupy the first rank in the state. See Plutarch.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · ANNÉES 1779-1783 · Entry 56
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.