Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends.”
- Date
- 1788
Meaning of “I had rather be shut up in a…”
Jefferson contrasts private intellectual and personal companionship with public grandeur, putting books alongside family and old friends as durable sources of contentment.
Where does it come from?
Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Donald, February 7, 1788; excerpt from a longer comparison with holding a splendid public post.
