Fishing books , lit by emotion recollected in tranquility, are like poetry. .. . We do not think of them as books but as men. They are our companions and not only riverside. Summer and winter they are with us and what a pleasant company they are.

I fished a little while ago with a man, not in his first youth, who had wasted the flower of his life on business and golf and gardening and motoring and marriage, and had in this way postponed his initiation (to fly fishing) far too long.

Good fishermen know that in talking about fishing, nothing is more interesting than the truth.

You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.

Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might-have-been.

Fishing is not like billiards, in which it is possible to attain a disgusting perfection.

Swallows and Amazons for-ever!