From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPhrase, often printed phraze, is a unit of verbal expression whose shape and movement can be compared with thought or the body.
- In JoubertThe sentence resembling a thought must match its dimensions and form, neither falling short nor extending beyond.
- In this editionThe English translation renders phraze with ordinary English sentence while retaining the historical French spelling.
- A place to beginSentence and thought should fit in dimensions and form.
- English renderings
- sentence
Meaning
Phrase, often printed phraze, is a unit of verbal expression whose shape and movement can be compared with thought or the body.
Use in the book
The sentence resembling a thought must match its dimensions and form, neither falling short nor extending beyond. This is a spatial analogy for fit, not a numerical rule for word count. The fidgeting sentence attributed to Locke has involuntary motion like a lively person forced to sit still. The writer’s own cursed ambition then compresses book into page, page into sentence and sentence into word. That self-portrait exposes the pressure of concentration; it should not be recast as an uncomplicated recommendation for every writer.
Places to read
- II, p. 594, entry 5, ¶1Sentence and thought should fit in dimensions and form.
- I, p. 265, entry 4, ¶1The sentence is compared to bodily fidgeting.
- II, p. 818, entry 3, ¶1Sentence stands between page and word in a tormented ambition for compression.
Translation in this edition
The English translation renders phraze with ordinary English sentence while retaining the historical French spelling. The initial noun and relative clauses on II.594 remain a fragment. English sentence here must also be distinguished from French sentence, which can mean a maxim or a judicial judgment.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 265; II, pp. 594, 818.