Joubert Quotes & Sayings

Proverbs may be said to be the abridgment of wisdom. — Joseph Joubert

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

The ordinary true, or purely real, cannot be the object of the arts. Illusion on a ground of truth,
that is the secret of the fine arts. — Joseph Joubert

Be saving, but not at the cost of all liberality. Have the soul of a king and the hand of a wise economist. — Joseph Joubert

Like every other Christmas Eve, she went to Grandpa John's room, because they were the only ones who knew how long the yearning for another person could last, long after everyone else had forgotten. — Irma Joubert

One of the most underutilized resources we have on the planet today is the good intentions of citizens and our willingness to make a difference. — Kosha Joubert

When we love, it is the heart that judges. — Joseph Joubert

We find little in a book but what we put there. But in great books, the mind finds room to put many things. — Joseph Joubert

There is graciousness and a kind of urbanity in beginning with men by esteem and confidence. It proves, at least, that we have long lived in good company with others and with our selves. — Joseph Joubert

In really good acting we should be able to believe that what we hear and see is of our own imagining; it should seem to be to us as a charming dream. — Joseph Joubert

The ways suited to confidence are familiar to me, but not those that are suited to familiarity. — Joseph Joubert

One who has imagination without learning has wings without feet. Joseph Joubert may 16 2002 — Joseph Joubert

What is true by lamplight is not always true by sunlight. — Joseph Joubert

We measure minds by their stature; it would be better to esteem them by their beauty. — Joseph Joubert

If you would live happily, do not exaggerate life's evils, nor slight her blessings. — Joseph Joubert

Truth consists of having the same idea about something that God has. — Joseph Joubert

Let us have justice, and then we shall have enough liberty! — Joseph Joubert

Common sense suits itself to the ways of the world. Wisdom tries to confirm to the ways of heaven. — Joseph Joubert

In clothes clean and fresh there is a kind of youth with which age should surround itself. — Joseph Joubert

Maxims are to the intellect what laws are to actions; they do not enlighten, but they guide and direct, and, although themselves blind, are protective. — Joseph Joubert

Everything that is exact is short. — Joseph Joubert

When my friends lack an eye, I look at them in profile. — Joseph Joubert

Of the two, I prefer those who render vice lovable to those who degrade virtue. — Joseph Joubert

He who cannot see the beautiful side is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover; he cannot lift his mind and his heart so high as goodness. — Joseph Joubert

Antiquity! I like its ruins better than its reconstructions. — Joseph Joubert

life is like a silver coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can spend it once. — Irma Joubert

Our life is woven wind. — Joseph Joubert

Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them. — Joseph Joubert

All luxury corrupts either the morals or the taste. — Joseph Joubert

The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk. — Joseph Joubert

The breath of the mind is attention 128 — Joseph Joubert

Genuine bon mots surprise those from whose lips they fall, no less than they do those who listen to them. — Joseph Joubert

To be an agreeable guest one need only enjoy oneself. — Joseph Joubert

All are born to observe order, but few are born to establish it. — Joseph Joubert

The soul paints itself in our machines. — Joseph Joubert

Whence? wither? why? how? - these questions cover all philosophy. — Joseph Joubert

Never cut what you can untie — Joseph Joubert

If you are poor, distinguish yourself by your virtues; if rich, by your good deeds. — Joseph Joubert

The sound of the drum drives out thought; for that very reason it is the most military of instruments. — Joseph Joubert

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. — Joseph Joubert

There are those to whom one must advise madness. — Joseph Joubert

Illusion and wisdom combined are the charm of life and art. — Joseph Joubert

Drawing is speaking to the eye; talking is painting to the ear. — Joseph Joubert

Children must be rendered reasonable, but not reasoners. The first thing to teach them is that it is reasonable for them to obey, and unreasonable for them to dispute. — Joseph Joubert

What can you possibly add to a mind that's full, especially one that's full of itself. — Joseph Joubert

Necessity may render a doubtful act innocent, but it cannot make it praiseworthy — Joseph Joubert

Every legitimate authority should respect its extent and its limits. — Joseph Joubert

Before you use a fancy word, make room for it. — Joseph Joubert

TIME and truth are friends, though there are many moments hostile to truth. — Joseph Joubert

There are people who are virtuous only in a piece-meal way; virtue is a fabric from which they never make themselves a whole garment. — Joseph Joubert

There are some men who are witty when they are in a bad humor, and others only when they are sad. — Joseph Joubert

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

It is not my words that I polish, but my ideas. 102 — Joseph Joubert

Misery is almost always the result of thinking. — Joseph Joubert

Fate and necessity are unconquerable. — Joseph Joubert

Grace imitates modesty, as politeness imitates kindness. — Joseph Joubert

All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so. — Joseph Joubert

The mind is the atmosphere of the soul. — Joseph Joubert

God multiplies intelligence, which communicates itself, like fire, ad infinitum. Light a thousand torches at one touch, the flame remains always the same. — Joseph Joubert

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. — Joseph Joubert

A thought is a thing as real as a cannonball. — Joseph Joubert

Men have torn up the roads which led to Heaven, and which all the world followed; now we have to make our own ladders. — Joseph Joubert

The true character of epistolary style is playfulness and urbanity. — Joseph Joubert

There is an admiration which is the daughter of knowledge. — Joseph Joubert

Education should be gentle and stern, not cold and lax. — Joseph Joubert

Lenity is a part of justice; but she must not speak too loud for fear of waking justice. — Joseph Joubert

Fear loves the idea of danger. — Joseph Joubert

Those for whom the world is not enough: saints, conquerors, poets, and all lovers of books. — Joseph Joubert

The paper is patient, but the reader is not. — Joseph Joubert

The evening of a well spent youth brings it's lamps with it. — Joseph Joubert

Thoughts there are, that need no embodying, no form, no expression. It is enough to hint at them vaguely; a word, and they are heard and seen. — Joseph Joubert

When a nation gives birth to a man who is able to produce a great thought, another is born who is able to understand and admire it. — Joseph Joubert

Good maxims are the germs of all excellence. — Joseph Joubert

Happy is the man who can do only one thing; in doing it, he fulfills his destiny. — Joseph Joubert

Innocence is always unsuspicious. — Joseph Joubert

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

The voice is a human sound which nothing inanimate can perfectly imitate. It has an authority and an insinuating property which writing lacks. It is not merely so much air, but air modulated and impregnated with life. — Joseph Joubert

In temperance there is ever cleanliness and elegance. — Joseph Joubert

In order to be happy, think of the ills you have been spared. — Joseph Joubert

There are some heads which have no windows, and the day can never strike from above; nothing enters from heavenard. — Joseph Joubert

No one is mediocre who has good sense and good sentiments. — Joseph Joubert

The passions of the young are vices in the old. — Joseph Joubert

Let your cry be for free souls rather than for freedom. Moral liberty is the only important liberty. — Joseph Joubert

The Bible is to religion what the Iliad is to poetry — Joseph Joubert

Religion is fire which example keeps alive, and which goes out if not communicated. — Joseph Joubert

Truth takes the stamp of the souls it enters. It is rigorous and rough in arid souls, but tempers and softens itself in loving natures. — Joseph Joubert

Some superior minds are unrecognized because there is no standard by which to weigh them. — Joseph Joubert

Speech is but the incorporation of thought. — Joseph Joubert

It is always our inabilities that vex us. — Joseph Joubert

Close your eyes and see. — Joseph Joubert

We should make ourselves loved, for men are only just towards those whom they love. — Joseph Joubert

National literature begins with fables and ends with novels. — Joseph Joubert

Old age takes from the man of intellect no qualities save those that are useless to wisdom. — Joseph Joubert

It is easy to understand God as long as you don't try to explain him. — Joseph Joubert

Children always want to look behind mirrors. — Joseph Joubert

We disjoint the mind like the body. — Joseph Joubert

Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course. — Joseph Joubert

You want to talk to someone; first open your ears. — Joseph Joubert

Let us be men with men, and always children before God; for in His eyes we are but children. Old age itself, in presence of eternity, is but the first moment of a morning. — Joseph Joubert

Haughty people seem to me to have, like the dwarfs, the stature of a child and the face of a man. — Joseph Joubert