Izaak Walton Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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
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
Let us not repine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt, if we see another abound with riches, when, as God knows, the cares that are the keys that keep those riches hang often so heavily at the rich man's girdle that they dog him with weary days and restless nights, even when others sleep quietly.

Izaak Walton
Let us be thankful for health and competence, and, above all, for a quiet conscience.

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

Izaak Walton
If I should begin but to name the several sorts of strange fish... that run into the sea, I might beget wonder in you, or unbelief, or both; and yet I will venture to tell you..

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

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

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And for winter fly-fishing it is as useful as an almanac out of date.

Izaak Walton
Of this blest man, let his just praise be given,
Heaven was in him, before he was in heaven.

Izaak Walton
The Waters are Nature's storehouse in which she locks up her wonders..

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

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

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

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
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
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
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