“Modern Philosophers, that wisely keep to sandy shallows, like shrimps, for fear of bigger fish.”
Vol. II, Ch. V Aphorisms and Extracts, p. 76.
Memoirs and Correspondence (1900)
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Coventry Patmore 33
English poet 1823–1896Related quotes

Introduction, p. 1
Catching the Big Fish (2006)
Source: Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
Context: Ideas are like fish.
If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.
Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.

"Q&A with Constance Marie", ABC Spark (11 September 2012) http://www.abcspark.ca/shows/switched-birth/articles/qa-constance-marie.

[Scorched-Earth Fishing, Issues in Science and Technology, 14, 3, Spring 1998, 33–36, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43313863]

“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”

“Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.”
The Old Man and the Sea (1952)