The robe of flesh wears thin, and with the years God shines through all things.

The sea has formed the English character and the essential England is to be found in those who follow it. From blue waters they have learned mercifulness, and they have also learned - in the grimmest of schools - precision and resolution. The sea endures no makeshifts. If a thing is not exactly right it will be vastly wrong.

"What would you call the highest happiness, Lewie?" he asked. "The sense of competence," was the answer, given without hesitation.

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

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

A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.

It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.