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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English Page · Branch 3110 of 4529
YEAR 1814 · Entry 6891
French
p. 62194 février.
Nos pensées sont tantôt une image du monde, tantôt une production de notre esprit, et tantôt un ouvrage ou une fabrication de notre volonté échauffée. Quand elles sont une image du monde, elles peignent la vérité. Si elles sont une simple production de notre esprit, elles représentent notre esprit et peignent encore quelque chose. Mais si elles sont l’ouvrage ou la fabrication de notre seule volonté, elles ne peignent rien de vrai et de propre à faire plaisir. Ce sont des traits bizarres, des caprices de l’écrivain, semblables à ces traits de plume...
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1814
p. 6220February 4.
Our thoughts are sometimes an image of the world, sometimes a production of our mind, and sometimes a work or a fabrication of our heated will. When they are an image of the world, they paint truth. If they are a simple production of our mind, they represent our mind and still paint something. But if they are the work or fabrication of our will alone, they paint nothing true or fit to give pleasure. They are bizarre strokes, the writer’s whims, like those pen strokes...
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1814 · Entry 6891
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.