Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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.

— Izaak Walton

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.

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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.

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

I am, sir, a Brother of the Angle.

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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."

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

I remember that a wise friend of mine did usually say, "That which is everybody's business is nobody's business."

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

An excellent angler, and now with God.

— Izaak Walton

Old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good.

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

No man can lose what he never had.

— Izaak Walton

We may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries: "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did"; and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

— Izaak Walton

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.

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

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.

— Izaak Walton

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.

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.

— Izaak Walton

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

— Izaak Walton