New Orts #46

December 1 MMXXIV

Relax, she says, relax, we’re harmless, and they laugh the way women laugh when they share a secret and you think it’s about you.
— Frank McCourt, ‘Tis, chapter 51

If a man and a woman can drive alone in a car for two hundred miles, there’s a good chance that they can be happily married.
— Walker Percy (1916-1990)

When you are born in one century and find yourself walking around in another there’s a certain infirmity to your footing. May we all be so lucky to live long enough to see our time turn to fable.
— Niall Williams, This Is Happiness, quoted by Ann Patchett in The Decision I Made 30 Years Ago That I Still Regret, New York Times, October 15 2024

People are little creatures with big capacities, finite beings with infinite desires,…
— Billy Graham