And where the deepest current crawls/ Like thistledown the dainty fly falls./ Then from the depths a silver gleam/ Quick flashes, like a jewel bright./ Up through the waters of the stream/ An instant visible to sight/ As lightning cleaves to sombre sky/ A rainbow rises to the fly.

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

Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.

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

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.

To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice. It is never a question of who is right but what is right.

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