Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.
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French Page · Branch 864 of 4529
Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné. · Entry 4645
French
p. 1727Travailler à se donner de la raison. La raison acquise sied bien. Mais une sensibilité étrangère au cœur de celui qui la montre sied mal. C’est à la fois un ridicule et un travers. On peut donc et on doit être raisonnable de la raison d’autrui, quand on ne l’est pas de la sienne. On peut aussi être bienfaisant par maximes. Tout cela est louable. Le naturel de la raison et de la vertu est d’être acquises. Mais le naturel de la bonté c’est d’être naturelle. La sensibilité d’emprumpt est une hypocrisie odieuse. C’est donner un masque pour un visage. Aprenez donc aux enfans à être vertueux, mais non pas à être sensibles. Il faut cacher la sensibilité.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné.
p. 1728To work at giving oneself reason. Acquired reason is becoming. But a sensibility foreign to the heart of the one who displays it is unbecoming. It is both a ridiculous trait and a quirk. One can therefore and ought to be reasonable with another’s reason when one is not with one’s own. One can also be beneficent through maxims. All this is praiseworthy. The nature of reason and virtue is to be acquired. But the nature of goodness is to be natural. Borrowed sensibility is an odious hypocrisy. It is passing off a mask as a face. Teach children, then, to be virtuous, but not to be sensitive. One must hide sensibility.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · Mr. Hochet and Mme de Sévigné. · Entry 4645
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 II continues the notebooks and includes seventy undated pieces. 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.