Izaak Quotes

#1. And angling too, that solitary vice, What Izaak Walton sings or says: The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.

Lord Byron

#2. For at least the last 275 years the honesty of fishermen has been somewhat questionable. It should be noted that Izaak Walton whose book published in 1653 spoke not of anglers and , but anglers OR very honest men .

Arthur Ransome

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

Izaak Walton

#4. 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

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#11. 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

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

Izaak Walton

#13. 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

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#28. 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

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#36. 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

#37. [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

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#41. 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

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#45. 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

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

Izaak Walton

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

Izaak Walton

#48. 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

#49. 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

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

Izaak Walton

#51. 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

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

Izaak Walton

#53. 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

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

Izaak Walton

#55. 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

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

Izaak Walton

#57. 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

#58. 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