Our gazes are rays that touch the eyes on one side and touch the object on the other. Thus vision is instantaneous. But hearing takes place otherwise. (Descartes has too philosophically compared them [these rays] to sticks.)
October 31.
Heat comes from motion, but from the motion of all the parts of a thing upon itself. Wind can be cold because it transports particles of air that are motionless or icy. Observe water. Cold flowing water has only a motion of transport and of mass. Hot water has an intrinsic motion and one of all its parts, etc. And the axiom: “everything takes place through shape and motion.”
And the saying: “There is knowledge only of things that do not move,” (in mathematics) or rather “only of things that do not change” (as in metaphysics).
Everything that warms us rubs us, like a swift brush.
M—ss—x used to say that in grammar “espoir is the flower of espérance.”
If light is warm one has motion in oneself? No. It causes motion, but does not experience it in itself. It lengthens, but without stamping, without agitation, not motionless, but tranquil.
Everything is for us a place that touches us or encloses us: our body, even our skin, our color.
The “idle” stomach.
Life and health are not one and the same thing.
God’s justice is not of this world.
Frederick made the Prussians wicked instead of making them better.
November 1.
The difference between a discovery and a find. One discovers what one seeks; one finds what one was not seeking.
November 4.
“Custom is a magistrate.” [Bacon.] This saying is beautiful. Nature is a peasant.
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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · Book Mode · Diotimos