Joseph Joubert Quotes

“There are those to whom one must advise madness.”

“... burdened with the unbearable weight of ourself.”

“To live without a body!”

“Are you listening to the ones who keep quiet?”

“It is not mental repose they seek, but mental laziness.”

“Nothing corrects a badly made mind. A sad and irritating truth that we learn late and after so many wasted efforts!”

“Lost spirit. Judges without justice, priest without religion.”

“Fear feeds the imagination.”

“The breath of the mind is attention 128”

“Few minds are spacious; few even have an empty place in them or can offer some vacant point. Almost all have narrow capacities and are filled by some knowledge that blocks them up. What a torture to talk to filled heads, that allow nothing from the outside to enter them! A good mind, in order to enjoy itself and allow itself to enjoy others, always keeps itself larger than its own thoughts. And in order to do this, these thoughts must be given a pliant form, must be easily folded and unfolded, so that they are capable, finally, of maintaining a natural flexibility.All those short-sighted minds see clearly within their little ideas and see nothing in those of others; they are like those bad eyes that see from close range what is obscure and cannot perceive what is clear from afar. Night minds, minds of darkness.”