Indeed, some words may be more imitative through the movements they require of the lips than through their sound. Barthez’s observation is misplaced, but not false in every respect.
September 25.
Of those who are afraid of speaking badly and in whom unusual expressions always cause some distrust.
September 27.
One may depart from simplicity when it is absolutely necessary for charm and when simplicity alone would not be beautiful.
September 28.
The true thing is not truth, and the thing that is not [true] is not error, just as a good action is not virtue and a wrong is not vice.
No fear of invisible things. Yet dread imprints the idea of them on minds. And the fear of God, which all the ancient sages recommended, alone makes religion. Fear and hope!... There is no true affection in which they do not mingle. We habitually think of nothing living except what we fear or what we love.
Our passions personified are the Devil. God’s anger reduced to a place is hell.
Among the furnishings, the prayer desk.
Indeed, a writer always needs to go over his work as a schoolboy his lesson. Go over, in this sense, is an expression of Bussy Rabutin’s.
September 29.
Among scholars I like only scholars by profession. I cannot stand the others: they serve no purpose. To mathematicians, mathematics; to physicians, medicine; to priests, theology.
October 1.
All religions = all women.
October 2.
When the seal one has in the mind makes no impression...
October 4.
— incapable of work.
Eloquence should come from emotion, and every emotion naturally gives it. It is therefore enough to accustom oneself to writing clearly: one will write eloquently when it is needed.
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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · Book Mode · Diotimos