Quotes from The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert — Joseph Joubert
1754–1824 France
← All quotes by Joseph Joubert
233 quotes
In such times, if you want neither to lie nor to wound, you are reduced to being silent.
The great inconvenience of new books is that they prevent us from reading the old ones.
Stars more beautiful to the eyes than the telescope that robs them of their illusions.
It is above all the language for expressing these truths that have not yet been found.
To let the reader complete the symmetry between words and do no more than suggest it.
Objects must be described only in order to describe the feelings they envoke in us.
We are all old children, more or less serious, more or less filled with ourselves.
The child speaks words with his memory long before he speaks them with his tongue.
To be capable of respect is, in these days, almost as rare as to be worthy of it.
Necessity can make a doubtful action innocent, but it cannot make it commendable.
All beautiful words are susceptible to more than one meaning (or signification).
In these times when, to express ourselves, we must speak in a way others do not.
In the same way crimes have increased laws, errors have increased explanations.
Adventurous minds, which wait for and receive their ideas only from chance.
It is impossible for me to say something foolish without being aware of it.
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Some find activity only in repose, and others repose only in movement.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph Joubert (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.