Joseph Monninger Quotes & Sayings

I go fishing not to find myself but to lose myself. — Joseph Monninger

We are alive, the wolves said. And the world is beautiful. — Joseph Monninger

Bears are extremely human, even down to their footprints. But I am also a fly fisherman, so I have fished beside brown bears in Alaska and was once charged by a black bear. I love bears. — Joseph Monninger

I'd love to do more woodworking, and maybe will someday, but I wasn't brought up in that environment. My wife is better at woodworking, and most around-the-house skills, than I am. — Joseph Monninger

...These stars will be gone one day for you. They will be for me, too. The Raven promises me I will turn back to sticks and dirt, and I believe him. But until then I am a human being and that is something to be. I stand on my feet and I look at the stars and I feel the seasons. If you work at it long enough, I promise you that will be enough for you...This world, every day, it's enough. — Joseph Monninger

What we find in a dog is what we bring to a dog. — Joseph Monninger

...'My father called me an enthusiast. I am enthusiastic about things. A lot of things.' - Mary — Joseph Monninger

I've taken a mail packet boat along the southern Newfoundland coast and spent some time on St. Pierre and Miquelon watching the seal colonies. I like pine trees. I like cold rivers. — Joseph Monninger

I liked her smile. And I knew that I had fallen in love. I knew that I wanted to run rivers with her, and camp, and go out to dinner and dance, and meet people with her by my side, and establish routines, and hear every knock-knock joke in her repertoire. I knew that. The knowledge came as simply as clean linen. — Joseph Monninger

I usually fish a Hornberg or a Muddler Minnow, a deer-haired streamer that comes in a variety of sizes and colors but replicates a sculpin minnow or a grasshopper. Even if a trout doesn't take the larger streamers, it can usually be counted on to come up and give a look, revealing its location. — Joseph Monninger

It's the Thanksgiving rule. That's another life tip." "Explain," I said. "Oh, Thanksgiving is this massive meal that usually takes someone about three days to prepare, and then everyone sits down and eats it in about fifteen minutes. The trick is to learn to take your time with Thanksgiving. You have to get everyone to promise that they won't get up for anything for at least an hour. Maybe two. — Joseph Monninger

I checked Delores, she appeared to be running on a lake top, a girl on a fairy horse sprinting across fresh water. As I looked, Delores let go of the bay's mane and sat straight up, riding only with her legs and hips, her arms out as if to fly. She tilted her head back, too, and she looked so perfect doing it that I didn't dare try to copy her. This was something only for her, something I could only witness, and she galloped down that hill with her soul somewhere up in the sky above her. We both knew it, and we never had to mention it. T — Joseph Monninger

All morning I thought how strange our meeting was. I mean, we have to be in a universe, on a continent, in a country, in a state, in a county, on a river, in a small yellow boat.[...]Long odds. And we had to leave our homes at the right time, drive at such and such a pace, stop for lunch, or not, get gas, or not. A thousand coincidences that arranged themselves so that we could meet. And then of course, we have to be attracted to each other. When I was little, my girlfriends and I called it Yeti love. You never expect to see it, but you've heard it's out there and it might just be a legend. But you keep looking for it anyway. — Joseph Monninger

As someone who has moved around a fair amount, I wondered what it would be like to stay rooted to one place, one community. — Joseph Monninger

I am almost certain fishermen posess a peculiar bend to their makeup. Fisherman are optimists, and the fish in the future is always preferable to the fish at hand. Even the best fishermen catch fish only a small percentage of the time, which means we persevere in a sport that features failure as its main ingredient. Truly great days, when the fish hammer the fly as soon as it lands on the water are rare. — Joseph Monninger

Don't spit into heaven... Don't tell the gods your plans; they'll only laugh. — Joseph Monninger

I've never liked the moment of seeing something beautiful - a sunset, a moose, an elephant - and then raising a camera and trying to capture it for some future moment. That's always struck me as strange. — Joseph Monninger

Fishing the small streams of New Hampshire is a pastime that combines hiking, map reading, and bushwhacking - plenty of it. — Joseph Monninger

In a universe, on a continent, in a country, in a state, in a county, on a river, in a small yellow boat,' I said. 'That's what Mary used to say to explain the odds of us meeting. And you have to be born in roughly the same period. Those are the odds. And probably you need to speak the same language.'-- Cobb — Joseph Monninger

We read not to escape, but to go deeper into life. — Joseph Monninger

When a trout rises to a fly, it does not swim as much as tilt its fins and jet skyward. — Joseph Monninger

I live in a beautiful part of the world - western New Hampshire along the Baker River - and my family and I spend a lot of time outdoors. — Joseph Monninger

Biologists have determined brookies to be indicators of ecosystem health and have been recently campaigning to get the word out. If brookies inhabit a stream, the odds are good that the waterway is in excellent condition. — Joseph Monninger

I once owned a home on an island off the coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. — Joseph Monninger

I actually believe in simplicity as a way of life. My wife and I are considering moving into a yurt! — Joseph Monninger