Happy Father's Day!

Celebrate with this thread of fatherly advice from one of the most quotable books of all time:

The Earl of Chesterfield's "Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman." 🧵👇 15. "I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves."

Twelve of Literature's Most Underrated Classics (from your suggestions).

A thread: 🧵👇 But first: most of these books are highly (and properly) esteemed.

They just have fallen off mainstream classics reading lists.

So, when I declare these titles "underrated," that's all I mean -- that they're often overlooked and not as widely read as they should be.

Happy Birthday, William Butler Yeats, born June 13, 1865.

His poems possess a lyricism and emotional intensity that is nonpareil and an insight into the modern world that often feels prophetic.

A thread of excerpts from my favorite W.B. Yeats poems: 🧵👇 10. When You Are Old, by W.B. Yeats (1893)

"A gentleman never hurts anyone's feelings, 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺," Oscar Wilde once wrote.

A thread of the playwright's most insulting (and amusing) quotations.

Which is your favorite?🧵👇 25. “I never saw anybody take so long to dress, and with such little result.” - The Importance of Being Earnest

It's been said that C.S. Lewis possessed "the rare gift of being able to make righteousness readable."

A thread of some of his most memorable quotes.

Which is your favorite? 🧵👇 1. "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."

Today is G.K. Chesterton's birthday, May 29, 1874.

Let's get him trending today.

In this thread, I have collected 25 of his best-loved quotes.

Which is your favorite? Share it, tell me about it, or post your own. 🧵👇 “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

~G.K. Chesterton
1/

Poet Wilfred Owen was killed-in-action in 1918, one week before the First World War's end.

Among his papers was found, unfinished, what would become the preface to his posthumous poetry collection.

Read on, for a Memorial Day thread on the War Poets: 🧵👇 Owens wrote:

"This book is not about heroes.

English Poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.

Nor is it about deeds or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, dominion or power, except War... 2/

In 1903, Jack London published a newspaper column with advice for young writers.

It is full of gold.

I've panned it for you and picked out 9 golden nuggets: 🧵👇 Rule #1: Don't Wait For Inspiration

"Don’t loaf and invite inspiration.

Light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it."

Why settle for one Great Book, when you can get *three*?

A thread of the Best Classic Literary Trilogies:

(You'll want to bookmark this for your summer reading list) 🧵👇 15. The Space Trilogy (1938-1945)

C.S. Lewis's "Out of the Silent Planet," "Perelandra," and "That Hideous Strength" blend science fiction with Christian theology to explore the corruption of human nature and the possibilities of redemption.

If you want your children to be:

• curious
• courageous
• compassionate &
• in love with reading

You need to inspire them (and yourself!) with these classic books. 🧵👇 But first:

The original versions of these works are masterpieces, but they may not be right for all reading levels.

All are available in children's abridged editions.

Check the publisher's age guidelines and find an edition that works for you.

The best books go out with a bang.

A Thread of the 50 Best Closing Lines in Classic Literature. 🧵 👇 1. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

2. "He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

~George Orwell, 1984

A mother's love can move mountains.

In ancient myth, sometimes literally.

For Mother's Day, a thread of the greatest moments of motherly devotion in mythology. 🧵👇 10. Venus

In the Aeneid, Venus repeatedly intervenes to rescue her mortal son, the hero Aeneas.

Whether it's warning him of Troy's fall, tending to his wounds, or delivering special armor on the eve of battle, Venus is a strong candidate for mythical mother of the year.

Nothing like a good hook to reel in the reader!

A Thread of the 50 Best Opening Lines in Classic Literature. 🧵 👇 1. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

2. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

In 1934, an aspiring writer asked Ernest Hemingway what books he should read.

He responded with a list of 16 classic works.

They're Great Books. I suggest you read them.

Or, at least, read this thread about them: When Hemingway handed this list to his young writer friend, he noted:

"If you haven’t read these, you just aren’t educated...

“Some may bore you, others might inspire you.

"And others are so beautifully written they’ll make you feel it’s hopeless for you to try to write...

C.S. Lewis wasn't just a great writer.

He was a great reader.

And he was always anxious to credit the great books that made him who he was.

A thread of the classic books C.S. Lewis credited with inspiring his writing and worldview: 🧵👇 12. Edith Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers

Nesbit's children's books, featuring the imaginative Bastable kids, were among Lewis's childhood favorites.

When he began work on Narnia, he told a friend that he wanted his book to be "in the tradition of E. Nesbit."

You have a choice:

1. Impress your Star Wars Fan friends by posting "May the Fourth be with you!" or

2. Impress them with your knowledge of the literary traditions that inspired George Lucas, by reading this thread.

The path is before you, the choice is yours alone...

🧵👇 Joseph Campbell's 1949 book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, presents a theory:

Mankind has been telling the same story to itself for millennia: a Monomyth.

Lucas was inspired to create his own by the 100s of Indo-European literary and religious examples Campbell cited.

The Apocalypse. Armageddon. The End of the World.

It's captured the imaginations of authors for millennia, inspiring some of our most inventive novels and poems.

A Thread of *Classic* Literature for the End of the World... 🧵 10. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This powerful 2006 novel is already a classic.

An apocalyptic event leaves the world in ash-covered ruins.

Among the few survivors: a father and son, tasked with "carrying the fire."

It's a book that will stick with you for a long time.

Each year, readers spend billions on self-help books and courses.

But why chase the latest fad self-help guru, when all of the wisdom of human history is at your fingertips?

Instead, check out one of these classic books of wisdom: (thread) 🧵👇 1. Struggling with anger management?

Read Seneca's On Anger.

Seneca knew what it was like to work for insane bosses in a high-stress environment (looking at you, Nero).

Keeping his cool meant preserving his life.

MYTH: The Dark Ages were a cultural and intellectual wasteland.

TRUTH: The Dark Ages gave rise to many important works of Western literature.

A countdown of Dark Age Europe's Greatest Literary Masterpieces: But first, to be precise:

I'm defining the "Dark Ages" as the early Middle Ages (~400-1000) in *Western* Europe.

Rome's fall caused disorder in the West -- historical records are sparse, so our vision is a tad dim.

But, amidst the dark, there are points of literary light...

On this day in 1882, writer Ralph Waldo Emerson breathed his last.

Emerson's transcendentalist worldview is not without its pitfalls, but it is *alive* -- few wrote about the possibilities of human achievement with more brilliance.

A thread of my favorite Emerson quotes: 15. "God will not have his work made manifest by cowards...

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."

~Emerson, Self-Reliance

On this day in AD 121, the Philosopher Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was born.

His diary (never meant for publication) is a reservoir of quotable sayings, preaching resilience and self-control. It's worth reading.

Here's a thread of my favorite lines from his Meditations: 🧵👇 15. Be like the rock against which the waves break.

It stands firm and tames the fury of the waters around it.