Joseph Joubert

We comprehend the earth only when we have known heaven. Without the spiritual world the material world is a disheartening enigma.

Joseph Joubert (7 May 1754 – 4 May 1824) was a French moralist and essayist. He published nothing during his lifetime; after his death in 1824, Joubert's widow entrusted his manuscripts to François-René de Chateaubriand, who published a short selection of them for private circulation, under the title Recueil des Pensées de M. Joubert (Collected Thoughts of Mr. Joubert) (Paris, 1838). This volume was subsequently re-edited with many additions by Paul Raynal, a nephew of the author, under the new title of Pensées, Essais, Maximes et Correspondance de J. Joubert (Thoughts, Essays, Maxims and Correspondence of J. Joubert) (Paris, 1842). A selection from his correspondence was published in 1883.

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Pensées, Essais, Maximes et Correspondance de J. Joubert

Except as otherwise noted, following quotes taken from Some of the ‘Thoughts’ of Joseph Joubert (1867),

published by William V. Spencer (Boston), translated by George H. Calvert

• We comprehend the earth only when we have known heaven. Without the spiritual world the material world is a disheartening enigma.
  • Chapter I (Of God, Creation, Eternity, Piety, Religion), p. 32
  • Cited in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 425.
  • Alternate translation : Earth is only comprehensible to those who have known heaven. Without the world of religion, the world of sense offers nothing but a desolating enigma. (translated by Katharine Lyttelton)

• Shut your eyes and you will see.
  • Chapter I (Of God, Creation, Eternity, Piety, Religion), p. 38

• Imagination is the eye of the soul.
  • Chapter III (Of Man, Of Organs, the Soul and the Intellectual Faculties), p. 49

• Some find activity only in repose, and others repose only in movement.
  • Chapter IV (Of the Nature of Minds), p. 52

• We use up in the passions the stuff that was given us for happiness.
  • Chapter V (Of the Passions and the Affections of the Soul), p. 58

• God has commanded time to console the afflicted.
  • Chapter V (Of the Passions and the Affections of the Soul), p. 60

• Eyes raised towards Heaven are always beautiful, whatever they be.
  • Chapter V (Of the Passions and the Affections of the Soul), p. 65

• Good impulses are naught, unless they become good actions.
  • Chapter V (Of the Passions and the Affections of the Soul), p. 68

• Never cut what you can untie.
  • Chapter IX (Of Wisdom, Virtue, Morality, Rule, and Duty), p. 86

• All luxury corrupts either the morals or the taste.
  • Chapter XII (Of Goverments and Constitutions; Of Liberty, Of Justice and the Laws; Of Public and Private Morals, Of the Character of Nations), p. 108

• When I see young people such as those of our day, I think that Heaven wishes to destroy the world.
  • Chapter XIII (Of Antiquity; of the Age), p. 118

• To be capable of respect is, in these days, almost as rare as to be worthy of it.
  • Chapter XIII (Of Antiquity; of the Age), p. 120

• Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.
  • Chapter XV (Of the Qualities of the Writer, and of Literary Compositions), p. 139

following quotes taken from Joubert: a selection from his Thoughts (1898),

published by Dodd, Mead & Company (New York), translated by Katharine Lyttelton

• To teach is to learn twice over.
  • Chapter XVIII (Of Education), p. 163

• He who has no poetry in himself will find poetry in nothing.
  • Chapter XX (Poetry), p. 182
  • Alternate translation : You will find poetry nowhere, unless you bring some with you. (translator unknown)
    • As cited in A dictionary of thoughts: being a cyclopedia of laconic quotations from the best authors, both ancient and modern (1891), Cassell pub. co., ed. Tryon Edwards, p. 417

Quotes about Joubert and his writings

• Joubert had this gift. He never wrote a book. He only prepared to write one, resolutely seeking the exact conditions that would allow him to write it. Then he forgot even his plan.
  • Maurice Blanchot : from his Afterword to The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert : edited and translated by Paul Auster (1983), published by North Point Press/SF, p. 164

• In selecting from the “Thoughts” I have sought those that are the largest and deepest, that are the least one-sided or partial, those that combine originality with beauty, brevity with weight, freshness with truth ; and thence I have passed over most of those that were written under dogmatic influences, and which, therefore, seem to me partial or one-sided. At the same time, to any who shall find themselves profited by what is here given them in English, may be cordially recommended the original volume, of which scarcely the half is here translated.
  • George H. Calvert, editor and translator of Some of the ‘Thoughts’ of Joseph Joubert (1867), pub. William V. Spencer (from the preface, Notice of Joseph Joubert, p. xxvi)

External links

• 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article
• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Review of translations by Paul Auster
• Recueil des pensées de M. Joubert (1838) (French text) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
• Pensées, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert (2nd Ed., 1850), V1 (French text) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
• Pensées, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert (2nd Ed., 1850), V2 (French text) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France