# Quote — Joseph Joubert, The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert

> The hordes of words that fill our books proclaim our ignorance, reveal the obscurities that flood our knowledge. If we were perfectly enlightened, our moral books would contain only maxims and our books on physics and spirituality would contain only axioms and facts. Everything else is clutter and shows no more than our gropings, our efforts, and our difficulties.

- Author: [Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert.md)
- Book: [The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Joubert#The_Notebooks_of_Joseph_Joubert_(1883)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/the-hordes-of-words

## More from this book

> Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/genius-begins-beautiful.md)

> Words, like glass, obscure when they do not aid vision.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/words-like-glass.md)

> You want to talk to someone: first open your ears.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/you-want-to-talk.md)