QuoteProject
We must reserve a back shop all our own entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude.
Michel De Montaigne
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of having a personal space for freedom and introspection.

Montaigne suggests that everyone needs a private sanctuary where they can reflect and cultivate their true sense of liberty. This 'back shop' serves as a retreat from the chaos of life, allowing for personal growth and authentic self-expression, underscoring the necessity of solitude for deep thought and freedom.

Themes

SolitudeLibertyFreedomIntrospectionPersonal Space

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of mental health, one might say, 'As Montaigne noted, we must reserve a back shop all our own to reflect on our true liberty.'

More from Michel De Montaigne

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.
Michel De MontaigneRead
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
Michel De MontaigneRead

Similar quotes

Last year, when he had been staying with the Pevensies, he had managed to hear them all talking of Narnia and he loved teasing them about it. He thought of course that they were making it all up; and as he was far too stupid to make anything up himself, he did not approve of that.
C. S. LewisRead
In the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.
Karl MarxRead
Everything that touches YOUR life, must be an instrument of YOUR liberation or tossed into the trash cans of HISTORY
John Henrik ClarkeRead
I am a strong individualist by personal habit, inheritance, and conviction; but it is a mere matter of common sense to recognize that the State, the community, the citizens acting together, can do a number of things better than if they were left to individual action.
Theodore RooseveltRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.