Izaak Walton

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

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

No man can lose what he never had.

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."

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.