O, sir, doubt not that Angling is an art; is it not an art to deceive a trout with an artificial fly?
Let me tell you that every misery I miss is a new blessing.
I am, Sir, a brother of the angle.
I love any discourse of rivers, and fish and fishing.
Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so...
A companion that feasts the company with and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is usually mixed with them, he is the man; and let me tell you, good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.
I have known a very good, fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite.
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.
Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
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.
I have then with pleasure concluded with Solomon, Everything is beautiful in his season.
And for winter fly-fishing it is as useful as an almanac out of date.
Let us be thankful for health and competence, and, above all, for a quiet conscience.
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.
You cannot lose what you never had.
But God, who is ableto prevail, wrestled with him, as the Angel did with Jacob, and marked him; marked him for his own.
The will of man is by his reason swayed.
That which is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.
The person who loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.