Joseph Joubert

In 1778 he went to Paris where he met D'Alembert and Diderot,[1] 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.

Joubert published nothing during his lifetime, but he wrote a copious number of letters and filled sheets of paper and small notebooks with thoughts about the nature of human existence, literature, Christianity and spiritual life, and other topics, in a poignant, often aphoristic style.

Somewhat of the Epicurean school of philosophy, Joubert even valued his own frequent suffering of ill health, as he believed sickness gave subtlety to the soul.

He belongs to the tradition of the so-called “French moralists.” Joubert's works have been translated into numerous languages.