Perch/fishing

Famous quotes containing the words perch and/or fishing:

    “Woman is mannes joy and all his bliss.”
    For when I feel a-night your softe side,
    Albeit that I may not on you ride,
    For that our perch is made so narrowe, alas!
    I am so full of joy and of solace
    That I defye bothe sweven and dream.’
    Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)

    I confess I was surprised to find that so many men spent their whole day, ay, their whole lives almost, a-fishing. It is remarkable what a serious business men make of getting their dinners, and how universally shiftlessness and a groveling taste take refuge in a merely ant-like industry. Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant. Of course, viewed from the shore, our pursuits in the country appear not a whit less frivolous.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)