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The
Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods Library
Thoreau's
Life & Writings
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Henry D. Thoreau Mis-Quotations Pages
“Many men fish
all their lives without ever realizing that it is not the fish they
are after.”
Variant:
“Many
go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they
are after.”
Misquotation probably based on the
following passage from Thoreau's Journal, 26 September 1853:
It is
remarkable that many men will go with eagerness to Walden Pond
in the winter to fish for pickerel and yet not seem to care for
the landscape. Of course it cannot be merely for the
pickerel they may catch; there is some adventure in it; but any
love of nature which they may feel is certainly very slight and
indefinite. They call it going a-fishing, and so indeed it is,
though perchance, their natures know better. Now I go a-fishing
and a-hunting every day, but omit the fish and the game, which
are the least important part. I have learned to do without them.
They were indispensable only as long as I was a boy. I am
encouraged when I see a dozen villagers drawn to Walden Pond to
spend a day in fishing through the ice, and suspect that I have
more fellows than I knew, but I am disappointed and surprised to
find that they lay so much stress on the fish which they catch
or fail to catch, and on nothing else, as if there were nothing
else to be caught.
The closest parallel
in a non-Thoreau text is from E.T. Brown's Not Without Prejudice:
Essays on Assorted Subjects (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1955) p. 142:
"When they go fishing, it is not really fish they are after. It is a
philosophic meditation."
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