Fishing and Fishermen

Fishing is in part by baits, in part by nets and more. Fishing in various forms have become métiers. Some become fishers of men, others of fish.

80 sayings on fishing, fish and fishers follow. Many could serve as figurative nudges about man-fishing, if lifted tolerably.

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A man who lives a worthwhile life should not be out fishing all the time.

A peasant between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

A ship-load of rotten fish may not get spoiled.*

All fish is not poison.

All rotten fish taste too bad for humans.

An angler is a man who spends rainy days sitting around on the muddy banks of rivers doing nothing because his wife won't let him do it at home.

As fish are lured by baits or caught in nets and get into the air on deck, gasping and dying, so many men, women and children are caught by word-baits and bled in cults and so on, after believing they could get it better in heaven, and without suffocating.

Better sma' fish than nane. - Scottish

Big fish eat little fish.

Big fish swim at the bottom. - Chinese saying

Dead fish don't sing and talk directly.

Different seas, different fish. (Abr.)

Don't butter the frying-pan before catching the fish.

Don't cry fish before they're caught.

Don't stand by the water and long for fish; go home and weave a net instead.

Every man fishes not in the same place and in just the same way.

Fish and guests may cease smelling well after about three days. *

Fish may or may not wait to see if things are going well with the angler.

Fishing may be called an art, as so much else.

Fishing of people is quite something to keep in mind.

For the fisherman, the fun is over when the fish are in the net.

Gut nae fish till ye get them. - Scottish

Happy the man who fishes and not only prays for fish. - Cf. Publilius Syrus

He who catches fish is a fisherman.

He who fears the fishes may not fish even once

Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear fish. - Cf. Erik H. Erikson

I do not believe much in stroking fish.

I think people look like fools sitting watching a line hour after hour--or else throwing and throwing, and catching nothing. - George Eliot, Middlemarch

If fish guessed right, they would see through the baits in their way before coming to hopeless misery and break down. There is a lot to learn from fish.

If life must be, then must many fishers.

If there are fishers to fear, they are fishers of men and women, and children too.

If you catch fish, you're a fisherman.

If you spend all your time worrying about bad fishing, living isn't going to be much fun.

Is there any fish so foolish, even though he is young, as to feel absolutely sure that he will be alive when evening comes? - Cf. Cicero

It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming. - John Steinbeck

It is ill fishing if the hook is bare.

It is the secret of the fishing-trip to to retire a little from sight and afterwards return again.

It is the unknown we fear when we look upon fishers and darkness.

It's quite an art to fish people and make them underlings.

It's when we go fishing for plastic that we wonder where all the fish have gone. - Anthony T. Hincks

Let fishing be a beautiful memory, as beautiful as autumn leaves.

Living at a river, one comes to know the nature of the fish in it; Dwelling by a mountain, one learns to recognize the language of the birds on it. - Chinese

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Many say, "How hard it is that we have to fish." They should seek a more fit alternative.

Many seem certain that they will still be around fishing tomorrow.

May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it. - Irish blessing

Necessity appears to be one of the mothers of fish life too.

Old persons are sometimes as unwilling to fish as tired-out children are to say good night and go to bed.

On a large enough time line, the survival rate for every fish will drop to zero.

One of humankind's most enduring misconceptions is that of nature's bounty... the belief that nature is such a powerful force that it is indestructible. - Mark Kurlansky, World Without Fish

People get fished in large numbers. It's a sad thing.

People living deeply have no mighty, unsound fear of fish, but keep living in a real world.

Should we fear unkempt fishers if they are not after us?

Small fish are better than empty dishes. - Faroese

Sonar and other equipment help us to fish more and make money for a while, perhaps until no fishes are left that are worth fishing for.

Still he fishes that catches one. [He may keep on after the first catch.]

The cat would gladly eat fish, but not wet her feet.

The company of the wicked is like being among foul-smelling fishes.*

The goal of all life is fish. - Mod. Sigmund Freud

The herrings do not love the fishermen.

The idea is to fish while there is much time left.

The twig that falls in the water will never become a fish.

There are people wo fish and others who disturb the water.

There are two types of fisherman - those who fish for sport and those who fish for fish.

There is more to life than fishing and enjoying the sunset.

There's nothing certain in a fisherman's life except this: That he must one day stop

To the psychotherapist an old man who cannot bid farewell to a life of fishing appears as feeble and sickly as a young man who is unable to embrace such a life. - Cf. Carl G. Jung

To the well-organised man, going fishing is but a next adventure.

Venture a small fish to catch a great one.

We must not demean life by standing in awe of fishes alone.

When I think of fish, I feel how free it makes us.

When we fear fishes terribly, it might prevent us from breathing the pure air of our now.

When we look out over the glittering waves we are not saddened at the thought of seatrouts swimming beneath them, and many a few of them heading toward our net.

When you're fishing in a flock, manage to be yourself

When you're not fishing maybe you could be mending the nets.*

While I was learning how to live, I learnt how to fish.

You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it's only in times of trouble that you line your pockets. - Aristophanes

Your lot is not to teach fishes to swim.

Your Inner Fish is your dancing soul returning to the heavens - figuratively.