From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordFatigue and lassitude register the limits of present capacity, especially the mind’s capacity to continue work or judgment.
- In JoubertThe warning of fatigue concerns powerlessness for the moment, not a verdict of permanent incapacity.
- In this editionThe English translation uses fatigue for fatigue and weariness for lassitude in these witnesses.
- A place to beginFatigue indicates a temporary limit in intellectual labor.
- English renderings
- fatigue; weariness
Meaning
Fatigue and lassitude register the limits of present capacity, especially the mind’s capacity to continue work or judgment.
Use in the book
The warning of fatigue concerns powerlessness for the moment, not a verdict of permanent incapacity. Yet weariness can produce a counterfeit conclusion: a person decides to escape an examination or an uncertainty instead of reaching a judgment through intelligence. A first-person note adds another complication. Doing well may itself require slowness and extreme fatigue. The three witnesses make fatigue a signal to interpret, not an infallible instruction either to stop or to persevere. They also distinguish the discomfort of work from the wish to finish thinking at any cost.
Places to read
- II, p. 520, entry 1, ¶1Fatigue indicates a temporary limit in intellectual labor.
- II, p. 589, entry 5, ¶1Weariness can substitute an act of will for intelligent judgment.
- II, p. 770, entry 6, ¶1Doing well is described as slow and extremely tiring.
Translation in this edition
The English translation uses fatigue for fatigue and weariness for lassitude in these witnesses. The first-person sentence leaves the activity unspecified; neither composition nor translation is supplied as its object.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, II, pp. 520, 589, 770.