We comprehend the earth only when we have known heaven. Without the spiritual world the material world is a disheartening enigma.
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 425.
Joseph Joubert was a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his
Pensées published posthumously.
From the age of 14 Joubert attended a religious college in
ToulouseToulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, where he later taught until 1776. In 1778 he went to
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he met
D'AlembertJean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie...
and Diderot, amongst others, and later became friends with young writer and
diplomatA diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
ChateaubriandFrançois-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian. He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.-Early life and exile:...
.
He alternated between living in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with his friends and life in the privacy of the countryside in
Villeneuve-sur-YonneVilleneuve-sur-Yonne is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.It is surrounded by a partly intact wall, built during the 12th century, which was one of the 8 residences of the French kings.-Geography:...
. He was appointed inspector-general of the University under Napoleon.
Joubert published nothing during his lifetime, but he wrote a copious amount of letters and filled sheets of paper and small notebooks with thoughts about the nature of human existence, literature and other topics, in a poignant, often
aphoristicAn aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...
style. After his death his widow entrusted Chateaubriand with these notes, and in 1838, he published a selection titled
Recueil des pensées de M. Joubert (
Collected Thoughts of Mr. Joubert). More complete editions were to follow, also of Joubert's correspondence.
Somewhat of the Epicurean school of philosophy, Joubert enjoyed even his own suffering as he believed sickness gave subtlety to the soul.
Joubert's works have been translated into numerous languages, into English by
Paul AusterPaul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
, amongst others.
Quotes
- To teach is to learn twice.
- When my friends are one-eyed, I look at them in profile.
- Today there are no more irreconcilable enmities, because there are no more disinterested emotions: that's a good thing born from a bad thing.
- All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so.
- "Justice is the truth in action."
- "Ask the young. They know everything."
- "The mind's direction is more important than its progress."
- Imagination is the eye of the soul.
External links