The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.

History gives us a kind of chart, and we dare not surrender even a small rushlight in the darkness. The hasty reformer who does not remember the past will find himself condemned to repeat it.

I believe everything out of the common. The only thing to distrust is the normal.

I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.

Most true points are fine points. There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right.

To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.