Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Joseph Joubert

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Name: The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II
Author: Joseph Joubert

Complete Notebooks · French with an independent English translation.

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The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume IIYEAR 1815 · Entry 7260

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Facing Pages · Branch 3479 of 4529

YEAR 1815 · Entry 7260

Translator notesBook Mode

French

p. 6957

Tant qu’il conserve sa raison, il reste à l’homme assés de feu, assés d’esprit et assés de mémoire pour converser avec le ciel et avec les âmes simples et bonnes. Cela suffit. Tout le reste est un superflu qui ne sert que pour les affaires, pour les plaisirs, pour les honneurs, pour les amusemens. Et quelles affaires a-t’on, de quels honneurs, de quels plaisirs a-t’on besoin quand on n’a rien de nécessaire à demander à la fortune, quand on est sage et qu’on est vieux?

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1815

p. 6958

As long as a man keeps his reason, he has enough fire left, enough wit and enough memory to converse with heaven and with simple, good souls. That is enough. All the rest is a surplus useful only for business, for pleasures, for honors, for amusements. And what business does one have, what honors, what pleasures does one need, when one has nothing necessary to ask of fortune, when one is wise and old?

T48.The three enough terms, fire image, two converse-with relations and separate sufficiency sentence remain. All four uses of the surplus and the final three interrogative phrases retain their order, including the changed position of honors and pleasures. The question stays conditional on needing nothing necessary, wisdom and age. This single paragraph continues through the opening five lines of 816. Wit carries the broader intellectual faculty here, not exclusively humor.

T446.The whole unit remains one paragraph across 815–816, with a separate printed boundary after the preceding varnish paragraph. The three assés forms and both avec terms remain, followed on 816 by the sufficiency statement and the four pour objects. The incoming color passage and its original-size crop retain complete foreground words; no source loss is inferred. Both a-t’on forms literally have a hyphen before t and an apostrophe after it, not two modernized hyphens. Amusemens retains its historical ending. The final question keeps its three interrogative objects, negative rien and repeated temporal clauses. All text is roman.

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.