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200 • S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S Summer trout from those clear waters are good to look at, but a trout in the spring is a sight to behold—gold and silver with red fins, iridescent in the sun, full bodied, hard and icy cold as the lake itself. Sigurd Olson, The Singing Wilderness, 1956 Submitted by Bob Norris of East Greenwich, Rhode Island. "It's a real funny thing," the Old Man said as we traced the river around to where you either have to swim or cut across high in the sandy hills. "A man can spend his life with his eyes open and never see a dingdong thing. Most people just stumble through this foolish business called life, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but when the old boy upstairs whacks you with the scythe, you ain't seen anything much." Robert Ruark, The Old Man and the Boy, 1957 Submitted by Matthew M. Osinski of Boise, Idaho. These are the moments that shall melt the frost of my years when the future is now. I sometime wonder what it will be like in those days of infirmity, if any, when I no longer am able to trudge the green hills or beat the gumbo at its tenacious worst. Will my bird dog, vibrant with the hot blood and tireless muscles of youth, wonder why I no longer pick up the stained old shell vest and the worn double-barrel? Can I explain to him so he'll understand? Can I explain to myself? I don't know if it's better not to dwell on what will be, but it certainly is nothing to anticipate. Far better to extract from each sweet moment its full measure of rich joy, to fix in memory the golden colors, the piercing exultation. Far better to have gone than never to have gone at all—for when the burden of years, the chains of infirmity become too heavy, it is too late to retrace the long road to yesterday. Joel M. Vance, Upland Bird Hunting, 1981. Submitted by Roger A. Bradley of East Petersburg, Pennsylvania. The black rock juts on the hidden pool And the waters are dim and deep, Oh, lightly tread—'tis a royal bed, And a king lies there asleep. Albert Bigelow Paine, The Tent Dwellers, 1908. Submitted by Don MacLean of Pictou, Nova Scotia. There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace. Aldo Leopold, 1887-1948. Submitted by Bob Whitehead of Cloverdale, California. Send us your favorite quotes from sporting literature and receive one free gift subscription for every quote that is published. Include the author, title of book, and date of publication. Send to: Quotes, Sporting Classics, PO Box 23707, Columbia, SC 29224 Quotes I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. Theodore Roosevelt speaking in Osawatonie, Kansas, 1910. Submitted by Dr. T.C. Jennings of Sanford, Michigan. The mind we knew in dreaming, a nonrational, nonlinear comprehension of events in which slips in time and space are normal, is, I believe, the conscious working mind of an aboriginal hunter. It is a frame of mind that redefines patience, endurance, and expectation. Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, 1945. Submitted by Jacques R. Vander Sande of Noxon, Montana.