Izaak Walton Quotes

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

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

But God, who is able to prevail, wrestled with him, as the Angel did with Jacob, and marked him; marked him for his own; marked him with a blessing, a blessing of obedience to the motions of his blessed Spirit.

I shall stay him no longer than to wish him a rainy evening to read this following discourse; and that if he be an honest angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing.

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."

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

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

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

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

No man can lose what he never had.

For love is a flattering mischief, that hath denied aged and wise men a foresight of those evils that too often prove to be the children of that blind father; a passion, that carries us to commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds move feathers, and begets in us an unwearied industry to the attainment of what we desire.

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

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.

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

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