Izaak Walton Quotes

Let the blessing of St. Peter's Master be...upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in his Providence, and be quiet and go a-angling.

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

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

Sir Henry Wotton was a most dear lover and a frequent practiser of the Art of Angling; of which he would say, "'T was an employment for his idle time, which was then not idly spent, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness;" and "that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and practised it."

Old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good.

The great secretary of Nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon.

I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning.

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

Thus use your frog...Put your hook through his mouth, and out at his gills;...and then with a fine needle and silk sew the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arming-wire of your hook; or tie the frog's leg, above the upper joint, to the armed-wire; and in so doing use him as though you loved him.

As the Italians say, Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter.

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

Of which, if thou be a severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow thee to be a competent judge.

No man can lose what he never had.

I am, sir, a Brother of the Angle.

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