Joseph Joubert Quotes

It seems there is something spiritual in wine.

Democracy and slavery are inseparable. Why. Democracy as it existed among the ancients was no more than government by a number of men large enough to be called the people. But this designation is false. The true people, in such a state, the greatest number, the majority belong to the class of slaves, and slavery inevitably develops in a country governed this way, because it is impossible that those who spend their time making laws can make shoes and clothes, plant crops, work fields, etc.

Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.

Retreat often into your sphere, rest yourself in your center, plunge yourself into your element: good advice, which must be remembered.

Animals love the people who talk to them.

It is not simply a matter of distinguishing between good and evil, but also of not confusing what is laughable with what is not. To make laughable what is not is in some way to make bad what was good.

Anger, which purges resentment.

A stupid lie is one that can never make itself believed.

It is not facts, but rumors that cause emotions among the people. What is believed creates everything.

Think nothing outside their paper.

What man knows only through feeling can be explained only through enthusiasm.

All reflection is art.

You go to truth by way of poetry and I go to poetry by way of truth.

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve

Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.