“All is well, practice kindness, heaven is nigh.”

Alfred Stieglitz (1887), in the American Annual of Photography 1897.

Rerum Novarum (1605)

Mors obruit illos,
non timor; invicti perstant animoque supersunt
jam prope post animam.
Carmen 5, line 251; vol. 1 p. 83.
Carmina

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666)
Context: About this time... in a Dream or Vision, presented to me. I saw, as if they were set on The Sunny side of some high Mountain, there refreshing themselves with the pleasant beams of the Sun, while I was shivering and shrinking in the Cold, afflicted with Frost, Snow, and dark Clouds. Methought, also, betwixt me and them, I saw a wall that did compass about this mountain; now, through this wall my soul did greatly desire to pass; concluding, that if I could, I would go even into the very midst of them, and there also comfort myself with the heat of their Sun.... At the last, I saw... a narrow gap, like a little doorway in the Wall, through which I attempted to pass. Now the passage being very strait and narrow... I was well nigh quite beat out, by striving to get in... Then was I exceeding glad, and went and sat down in the midst of them, and so was comforted with the light and heat of their Sun.

the robin and the worm

Source: The Dharma Bums

Source: The Archiving Society, 1961, p. 210

A Man Without a Country (2005)
Context: If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.