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 697 of 4529
YEAR 1806 · Entry 4478
French
p. 1393Si on n’a quelque condescendance et quelque respect pour l’auteur, la moitié d’un livre sérieux impatiente toujours quand il est nouveau et qu’il dit les choses nouvelles. Nous n’entendons rien de ce que nous n’avons jamais pensé. Il faut entrer dans les idées des autres si on veut retirer quelque profit des conversations et des livres. Quand il y a dans un livre dogmatique des clartés qui pourront nous plaire, il nous importe de souffrir sans y prendre garde les obscurités préliminaires qui pourroient nous rebuter.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II: YEAR 1806
p. 1394Unless one has some indulgence and some respect for the author, half a serious book always makes one impatient when it is new and says new things. We understand nothing of what we have never thought. One must enter into others’ ideas if one wishes to gain some profit from conversations and books. When a doctrinal book contains clarities that will be able to please us, it matters to us to endure, without heeding them, the preliminary obscurities that might put us off.
Socrates
Reading The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II · YEAR 1806 · Entry 4478
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.