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 4065 of 4529
YEAR 1818 · Entry 7846
French
p. 812927 avril.
Il faut recevoir le passé avec respect, le présent avec défiance, si on veut pourvoir à la sûreté de l’avenir. Mais c’est le passé continu ou égal ou semblable à lui-même qu’on doit respecter, et non le passé innovateur. Celui-ci, en méconnoissant les droits des temps qui l’avoient précédé a perdu les siens auprès des temps qui ont pu les suivre. Et il ne faut pas appeler innovateurs les siècles qui ont achevé ce que les autres avoient commencé, mais ceux qui ont travaillé à le détruire.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1818
p. 8130April 27.
One must receive the past with respect, the present with distrust, if one wishes to provide for the future’s safety. But it is the past continuous or equal or similar to itself that one must respect, and not the innovating past. The latter, by disregarding the rights of the times that preceded it, has lost its own before the times that could follow them. And one must not call innovators the centuries that completed what the others had begun, but those that worked to destroy it.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1818 · Entry 7846
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.