My Favorite Ancient* Quotes About Fishing
I've always had a soft spot for books printed in the 20th century. There's just something about the paper, the illustrations, and the charming writing style that has always drawn me in, no matter what the topic is. Even the outdated information can be so fascinating, like a snapshot of a time we were so desperate to know what we know now, and how we made sense of the world before that.
Long before I was ever into fishing, my shelves mostly held books about chemistry, pharmacology, botany, toxicology, hormones, human anatomy, and drug metabolism, with many of them published around the 70s and 80s. I keep a few reference books from the 2010s for when I need more reliable information and not just entertainment. My #1 favorite of the 'modern' books is without a doubt Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology. For a layperson like me, Stahl's is the Gold Standard of reliable, entertaining, and educational casual reading. Lotsa pictures, too. :)
Now that I love to fish, I recently dove into the world of midcentury / postmodern fishing guides. It's been a goldmine of everything I love about old books!
I also love ancient stuff like Oppian's Halieutica - always very cool to feel in conversation with someone from 2,000 years ago. All this time has passed and we still understand what he means when he says "Pleasure more than sweat attends the hunt", for example.
*Most of the books featured here are certainly not 'ancient', but Halieutica is the main inspiration for this page and I like the intensity of clarifying that at least some of the excertps here are literally ancient and still true today.
You should read A.W. Mair's 1928 translation of Halieutica for yourself! I have it for you right here as a downloadable PDF.
I hope you can enjoy this page and maybe find a line or two that sticks with you.
Jump to fishy quotes from:
The Bible
Halieutica by Oppian (2nd century)
How to Fish for Snook by Earl Downey (1964)
Complete Book of Baits, Rigs, and Tackle by Vic Dunaway (1971)
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"So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."
"The earth is the
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters."
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Translated by Professor A.W. Mair in 1928.
This was his final translated work.
- ‼️ "Pleasure more than sweat attends the hunt." p.203
- "In feeble hairs and bent hooks of bronze and in reeds and nets the fishers have their strength." p.205
- "For great delight it is for eye and mind to see the captive fish tossing and turning." p.205
- ‼️ "...for always the mind of inexperienced men is hard to persuade, and they will not believe even the truth." p.229
- "And the sailors tremble to see the mysterious bonds of the sea, beholding a mavrvel like unto a dream." p.229
- "And those to whom God hath not given strength, and who have no sharp sting springing from the body, to these He hath given a weapon of the mind, even crafty counsel of many devices; these by guile ofttimes destroy a strong and mightier fish." p.287
- "Always there is fishy war and strive between them, and one fills his maw with the other." p.307
- "Daring also should [the fisher] be and dauntless and temperate and he must not love satiety of sleep but must be keen of sight, wakeful of heart and open-eyed." p.349
- "In the autumn season fishing is best in the evening and when the morning-star rises. In winter the fisher should set out with the spreading rays of the sun. In bloomy spring the whole day is prosperous in all manner of fishing, what time all fishes are drawn to haunt the coasts near the land by the travail of birth and the thirst of desire." p.349
- "Fourfold modes of hunting their prey in the sea have fishermen devised.
Some delight in hooks...
Others prefer to array nets...
Others have their minds set rather upon weels [traps] which bring joy to their masters while they sleep at ease...
Others with the long pronged Trident wound the fish from the land or from a ship as they will." p.351-353
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"On the other hand, if you catch nothing at all, you haven't lost anything and will not be disappointed because after all, what you wanted to do was get away for a while, wasn't it - The fact that you did do so and were out under the blue skies, in nature's own pure clean air and warm sunshine surely did you no harm." p.10
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Check back often and watch this section grow & evolve.