"Sully didn't know too many people who got smarter over the course of a lifetime. Some made fewer mistakes, but in Sully's opinion that was because they couldn't go quite so fast. They had less energy, not more virtue; fewer opportunities to screw up, not more wisdom."

--Richard Russo, Nobody's Fool

Why does God not spare the innocent?

The answer to that is not in
the same world as the question
so you would shrink from me
in terror if I could answer it.

--"The Knockdown Question", Les Murray