Izaak Walton (1593 – 1683)
English writer, author of The Compleat Angler.
The great secretary of Nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon.
As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.
This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men.
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."
No man can lose what he never had.
It [angling] deserves commendations;… it is an art worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man.
For love is a flattering mischief, that hath denied aged and wise men a foresight of those evils that too often prove to be the children of that blind father; a passion, that carries us to commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds move feathers, and begets in us an unwearied industry to the attainment of what we desire.