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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Facing Pages · Branch 2236 of 4529
YEAR 1809 · Entry 6017
French
p. 447120 décembre.
Ceux qui ont voyagé dans vos opinions et en sont sortis, vous les appellés déserteurs. Mais on ne doit donner ce titre injurieux qu’à ceux qui ont abandonné les opinions anciennes et communes qui ont été comme une patrie où leur esprit a pris ses habitudes et ses forces. Ceux donc qui ont abandonné ces opinions sans en adopter de meilleures ont été les seuls imprudens et les seuls blâmables. L’inconstance dans les autres est louable et heureuse, si elle ramène à la sagesse par l’expérience.
Celui là seul peut être appelé le déserteur qui a quitté trop légèrement les anciennes et communes opinions qui sont comme une patrie où notre esprit a pris toutes ses habitudes.
Il est entré en curieux et en voyageur dans toutes les autres et peut en sortir à son gré sans encourir aucun blâme légitime; car il y étoit étranger.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1809
p. 4472December 20.
Those who have traveled through your opinions and come out of them, you call deserters. But one must give this insulting title only to those who have abandoned the old and common opinions that have been like a homeland where their mind acquired its habits and its powers. Those, then, who abandoned these opinions without adopting better ones have been the only imprudent ones and the only blameworthy ones. Inconstancy in the others is praiseworthy and fortunate, if it leads back to wisdom through experience.
Only the one who has too lightly left the old and common opinions that are like a homeland where our mind acquired all its habits can be called the deserter.
They entered all the others out of curiosity and as a traveler, and may leave them at will without incurring any legitimate blame; for there they were a stranger.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1809 · Entry 6017
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.