281 quotes
It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
Without fixed ideas, no fixed feelings. (Whoever has no constant opinions has no constant emotions.)
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
When I see young people such as those of our day, I think that Heaven wishes to destroy the world.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
We are afraid of having and showing a small mind and we are not afraid of having and showing a small heart.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
In this painting of our life given to us by our memories, everything is moving and depends on our point of view.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
In such times, if you want neither to lie nor to wound, you are reduced to being silent.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
The great inconvenience of new books is that they prevent us from reading the old ones.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
Stars more beautiful to the eyes than the telescope that robs them of their illusions.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
It is above all the language for expressing these truths that have not yet been found.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
To let the reader complete the symmetry between words and do no more than suggest it.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
Objects must be described only in order to describe the feelings they envoke in us.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
We are all old children, more or less serious, more or less filled with ourselves.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
The child speaks words with his memory long before he speaks them with his tongue.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
To be capable of respect is, in these days, almost as rare as to be worthy of it.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
Necessity can make a doubtful action innocent, but it cannot make it commendable.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
All beautiful words are susceptible to more than one meaning (or signification).
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
Someone said of an asthmatic who was being very sweet and patient in his suffering: "One would like to breathe for him."
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
In these times when, to express ourselves, we must speak in a way others do not.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
In the same way crimes have increased laws, errors have increased explanations.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
Adventurous minds, which wait for and receive their ideas only from chance.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)