We must reserve a backshop, wholly our own and entirely free, wherein to settle our true liberty, our principal solitude and retreat.
- Source
- Essays, “Of Solitude”, 1580, trans. Charles Cotton
- Written
- 1580
About this quotation
Montaigne writes this in the essay on solitude, where he says we should have wives, children, goods and health, but must not set our hearts on them so firmly that our happiness depends on them. “Backshop” is Cotton’s word for the room behind a shop.