Joseph Joubert Author

Gender: Male
Citizenship: France
Born: May 7, 1754
Died: May 4, 1824

Joseph Joubert was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his Pensées, which was published posthumously.

From the age of fourteen Joubert attended a religious college in Toulouse, where he later taught until 1776. In 1778 he went to Paris where he met D'Alembert and Diderot, amongst others, and later became a friend of a young writer and diplomat, Chateaubriand.

He alternated between living in Paris with his friends and life in the privacy of the countryside in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. He was appointed inspector-general of universities 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 aphoristic style. After his death his widow entrusted Chateaubriand with these notes, and in 1838, he published a selection entitled, Recueil des pensées de M. Joubert. More complete editions were to follow, as were collections of Joubert's correspondence.

Genius begins great works labor alone finishes them.

being alone

Only choose in marriage a man whom you would choose as a friend if he were a woman.

marriage

One who has imagination without learning has wings without feet.

imagination & learning

You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.

poetry

Imagination is the eye of the soul.

imagination

Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable of.

religion