Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise.

Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise.

Still he fishes that catches one.

Still he fishes that catches one.

Of all the world's enjoyments
That ever valued were,
There's none of our employments
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Of all the world's enjoyments
That ever valued were,
There's none of our employments
With fishing can compare.
- Thomas Durfee (or D'Urfey),

La ligne, avec sa canne, est un long instrument,
Dont le plus mince bout tient un petit reptile,
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La ligne, avec sa canne, est un long instrument,
Dont le plus mince bout tient un petit reptile,
Et dont l'autre est tenu par un grand imbecile.

A rod twelve feet long and a ring of wire,
A winder and barrel, will help thy desire
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A rod twelve feet long and a ring of wire,
A winder and barrel, will help thy desire
In killing a Pike; but the forked stick,
With a slit and a bladder,--and that other fine trick,
Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck,--
Will kill two for one, if you have any luck;
The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile,
To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile;
When a Pike suns himselfe and a-frogging doth go,
The two-inched hook is better, I know,
Than the ord'nary snaring: but still I must cry,
When the Pike is at home, minde the cookery.

A stick and a string with a fly at one end and a fool at the
other.

A stick and a string with a fly at one end and a fool at the
other.

For angling-rod he took a sturdy oak;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His read more

For angling-rod he took a sturdy oak;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His hook was such as heads the end of pole
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
This hook was bated with a dragon's tail,--
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.

The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon Him here,
Blest fishers were; read more

The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon Him here,
Blest fishers were; and fish the last
Food was, that He on earth did taste:
I therefore strive to follow those,
Whom He to follow Him hath chose.

There is only one theory about angling in which I have perfect
confidence, and this is that the two read more

There is only one theory about angling in which I have perfect
confidence, and this is that the two words, least appropriate to
any statement, about it, are the words "always" and "never."