Arthur Ransome Quotations

Fishing is not like billiards, in which it is possible to attain a disgusting perfection.

I fished a little while ago with a man, not in his first youth, who had wasted the flower of his life on business and golf and gardening and motoring and marriage, and had in this way postponed his initiation (to fly fishing) far too long.

...next to the pleasure of reading a favourite fishing book comes that of persuading a friend to read it too.

Good fishermen know that in talking about fishing, nothing is more interesting than the truth.

For at least the last 275 years the honesty of fishermen has been somewhat questionable. It should be noted that Izaak Walton whose book published in 1653 spoke not of anglers and , but anglers OR very honest men .

. . perhaps the greatest satisfaction on the first day of the season is the knowledge in the evening that the whole of the rest of the season is to come.

Swallows and Amazons for-ever!

You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.

When a thing's done, it's done, and if it's not done right, do it differently next time.

Fishing books , lit by emotion recollected in tranquility, are like poetry. .. . We do not think of them as books but as men. They are our companions and not only riverside. Summer and winter they are with us and what a pleasant company they are.

The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.

Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for what might have been

There are two distinct visits to tackle-shops, the visit to buy tackle and the visit which may be described as Platonic when, being for some reason unable to fish, we look for an excuse to go in, and waste the tackle dealer's time.

Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might-have-been.