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Angling: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

A rod twelve feet long and a ring of wire, A winder and barrel, will help thy desire In killing a Pike; but the forked stick, With a slit and a bladder, and that other fine trick, Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck,- Will kill two for one, if you have any luck; The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile, To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile; When a Pike suns himselfe and a-frogging doth go, The two-inched hook is better, I know, Than the ord'nary snaring: but still I must cry, When the Pike is at home, minde the cookery.— BARKER — The Art of Angling (Reprint

of 1820 of the 1657 edition). For angling-rod he took a sturdy oak; For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke; His hook was such as heads the end of pole To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole; This hook was bated with a dragon's tail,- And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.— SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT — Britannia

Triumphans. P. 15. To fish in troubled waters.— MATHEW HENRY — Commentaries.

Psalm LX. In genial spring, beneath the quivering shade, Where cooling vapors breathe along the mead, The patient fisher takes his silent stand, Intent, his angle trembling in his hand; With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed, And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed.— POPE — Windsor Forest. L. 135.

Give me mine angle, we'll to the river; there, My music playing far off, I will betray Tawny-finn'd fishes; my bended hook shall pierce Their slimy jaws.— Shakespeare — Antony and Cleopatra. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 10.

The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish Cut with her golden oars the silver stream, And greedily devour the treacherous bait.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 26.

Shrimps and the delicate periwinkle Such are the sea-fruits lasses love: Ho! to your nets till the blue stars twinkle, And the shutterless cottages gleam above!— BAYARD TAYLOR — The Shrimp-Gatherers

(Parody of Jean Ingelow). But should you lure From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots Of pendent trees, the Monarch of the brook, Behoves you then to ply your finest art.— THOMSON — The Seasons. Spring. L. 420.

And upon all that are lovers of virtue; and dare trust in his providence; and be quiet; and go a-angling.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. XXI.

An excellent angler, and now with God.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. IV.

Angling is somewhat like Poetry, men are to be born so.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. I.

Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learnt.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler.

Author's Preface. As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler.

Author's Preface. Doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be, like virtue, a reward to itself.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. I.

I am, Sir, a brother of the angle. S.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. I.

I shall stay him no longer than to wish that if he be an honest angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a fishing.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler.

The Author's Preface. It [angling] deserves commendations; * * * it is an art worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. I.

Of recreation there is none So free as fishing is, alone; All other pastimes do not less Than mind and body, both possess: My hand alone my work can do; So I can fish and study too. C.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler.

The Angler's Song. O! the gallant fisher's life, It is the best of any : 'Tis full of pleasure, void of strife, And 'tis beloved by many. Other joys Are but toys; Only this, Lawful is; For our skill Breeds no ill, But content and pleasure.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler. Ch. XVI.

The first men that our Saviour dear Did choose to wait upon Him here, Blest fishers were; and fish the last Food was, that He on earth did taste: I therefore strive to follow those, Whom He to follow Him hath chose.— IZAAK WALTON — The Complete Angler.

The Angler's Song. Thus use your frog: * * * put your hook, I mean the arming wire, through his mouth, and out at his gills, and then with a fine needle and silk sow 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 — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. VIII.

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 — The Complete Angler. Pt. I. Ch. V.