Izaak Walton Quotes

God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart.

Doubtless God Could Have Made A Better Berry, But Doubtless God Never Did

But God, who is ableto prevail, wrestled with him, as the Angel did with Jacob, and marked him; marked him for his own.

Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration.

No life is so happy and so pleasant as the life of the well-govern'd angler.

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learned.

Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can't buy.

Blessings upon all that hate contention, and love quietnesse, and vertue, and Angling.

O, sir, doubt not that Angling is an art; is it not an art to deceive a trout with an artificial fly?

Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so.

I have laid aside business, and gone a'fishing.

If you can't be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.

Doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant that it will prove to be, like virtue, a reward to itself.

I love any discourse of rivers, and fish and fishing.

The Waters are Nature's storehouse in which she locks up her wonders.

I am, Sir, a brother of the angle.

You cannot lose what you never had.

If all the theories were correct, there wouldn't be a fish left in all of our lakes and rivers and streams.

Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art.

He directed that the stone over his grave be inscribed: Hic jacet hujus sententiae primus auctor: DISPUTANDI PRURITUS ECCLESIARUM SCABIES.

Angling may be saidtobe so likemathematics, that itcan never be fully learnt.

These poor rich men, we anglers pity them perfectly.

The person who loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.

No man can lose what he never had.

Let me tell you that every misery I miss is a new blessing.

I have known a very good, fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite.

Angling is an art, and an art worth your learning.

As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.

This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men.

Affliction is a divine diet which though it be not pleasing to mankind, yet almighty God hath often imposed it as a good, thought bitter, physic, to those children whose souls are dearest to him.

It [angling] deserves commendations;... it is an art worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man.

That which is everybody's business is nobody's business.

Lord, what music hast thou provided for Thy saints in heaven, when Thou affordest bad men such music on earth!

You will find angling to be like the virtue of humanity, which has a calmness of spirit and a world of blessing attending upon it.

It was wisely said, by a man of great observation, that there are as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them.

Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.

Let us be thankful for health and competence, and, above all, for a quiet conscience.

And for winter fly-fishing it is as useful as an almanac out of date.

We see but the outside of a rich man's happiness; few consider him to be like the silkworm, that, when she seems to play, is at the very same time consuming herself.

Oh, the gallant fisher's life!It is the best of any;'T is full of pleasure, void of strife,And 't is beloved by many.

[T]is not all fishing to fish.

The will of man is by his reason swayed.

An excellent angler, and now with God.

There are offences given and offences not given but taken.

So long as thou are ignorant be not ashamed to learn. Ignorance is the greatest of all infirmities, and when justified, the chiefest of all follies.

Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so: I mean, with inclinations to it, though both may be heightened by discourse and practice

It is agreed by most men, that the Eele is a most daintie fish; the Romans have esteemed her the Helena of their feasts, and some The Queen of pleasure.

Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.