A quote by Montayne

Yesterday, I went to a lawyer's office with two male friends. On the door of lawyer's office, we saw this quote...

"I gather the flowers by the way wayside, by the brooks and in the meadows, and only the string with which I bind them is my own." Montayne

The only problem is...we all gave different interpretations to this quote...and none of us agreed the other was right.

So, I decided to bring it here to see what you guys think this quote means and to know who got it right amongst the three of us.

What exactly is the writer trying to say? What is it's literal meaning? Chude, if you see this, I also want to know what you think...