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 851 of 3781
YEAR 1797 · Entry 851
French
p. 17013 juillet.
Mots dont le son, la clarté et (pour ainsi dire) le volume sont amoindris. C’est à dire qu’ils n’expriment rien que d’adouci. Ils sont dans le langage ce que les semi-tons sont dans la musique, et y forment un genre achromatique. Ils prennent faveur lorsqu’une langue ayant acquis toute son énergie et en ayant beaucoup usé, cet affaiblissement devient une nouveauté qui frappe et qui plaît lorsqu’il est élégant. Les esprits très cultivés s’en contentent longtemps. Enfin il est insuffisant et ses inconvéniens à cette époque...
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I: YEAR 1797
p. 1702July 3.
Words whose sound, clarity, and (so to speak) volume are diminished. That is, they express nothing that is not softened. They are in language what semitones are in music, and form an achromatic genre within it. They come into favor when a language has acquired all its energy and used it a great deal, and this weakening becomes a novelty that strikes one and pleases when it is elegant. Highly cultivated minds are content with it for a long time. In the end it is insufficient, and its disadvantages at that point...
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume I · YEAR 1797 · Entry 851
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.