Izaak Walton Quotes

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#3. Old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#6. [Be grateful for the simple things in life. Don't take them for granted. After all ... ] What would a blind man give to see the pleasant rivers and meadows and flowers and fountains; and this and many other like blessings we enjoy daily.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#9. These poor rich men, we anglers pity them perfectly.

Izaak Walton

#10. He that loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping. Therefore be sure you look to that, and in the next place look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to a good conscience.

Izaak Walton

#11. [T]is not all fishing to fish.

Izaak Walton

#12. Angling is an Art ... an art worth your learning.

Izaak Walton

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 And for winter fly-fishing it is as useful as an almanac out of date.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#18. 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.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#20. 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.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#22. 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.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#24. Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are made for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration.

Izaak Walton

#25. I am, Sir, a brother of the angle.

Izaak Walton

#26. 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.

Izaak Walton

#27. 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.

Izaak Walton

#28. 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.

Izaak Walton

#29. Health is ... a blessing that money cannot buy.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#31. Of this blest man, let his just praise be given,
Heaven was in him, before he was in Heaven.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#33. In so doing, use him as though you loved him.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#36. Blessings we enjoy daily, and for most of them, because they be so common, we forget to pay our praises. But let not us, because it is a sacrifice so pleasing to Him who still protects us, and gives us flowers and showers and meat and content.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#39. The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.

Izaak Walton

#40. I have then with pleasure concluded with Solomon, Everything is beautiful in his season.

Izaak Walton

#41. Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#45. No man can lose what he never had.

Izaak Walton

#46. There are offences given and offences not given but taken.

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#52. An excellent angler, and now with God.

Izaak Walton

#53. Blessings we enjoy daily, and for the most of them, because they be so common, men forget to pay their praises. [and miss much of their benefits from grateful appreciation]

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#56. 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.

Izaak Walton