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 3279 of 4529
YEAR 1814 · Entry 7060
French
p. 655720 juillet.
Une logique de style, une justesse dans les mots qui peut être quelquefois trop serrée. Il faut en pareil cas plus consulter son goût que ses idées ou sa raison. Le goût est la conscience littéraire de l’âme. Notre raison agit souvent par des maximes arbitraires ou par des calculs d’habitude. Nous avons tous quelque manière de raisonner qui n’est qu’une manière. On se trompe et même on s’égare quand on est plus fidèle à sa méthode accoutumée qu’à la vivacité de son instinct.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1814
p. 6558July 20.
A logic of style, a rightness in words that can sometimes be too tight. In such a case one must consult one’s taste more than one’s ideas or one’s reason. Taste is the soul’s literary conscience. Our reason often acts through arbitrary maxims or habitual calculations. We all have some manner of reasoning that is only a manner. One is mistaken and even goes astray when one is more faithful to one’s accustomed method than to the liveliness of one’s instinct.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1814 · Entry 7060
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.