John Muir: Food For Thought For Value Investors by Steven Towns, Active Investing
In my last post I talked about how I enjoy reading and like to read as much non-finance material as possible. I have since finished the critique of John Muir’s writing that was published by I assume the now late Univ. of Wisconsin professor Herbert Smith (published in 1965). The following passage by Muir (from John of the Mountains; shared by Smith late in his review) may be applicable today as much as it must have been in his time ~100 years ago. Perhaps this is especially important to keep in mind during bull markets:
No sane man in the hands of nature can doubt the doubleness of his life. Soul and body receive separate nourishment and separate exercise, and speedily reach a stage of development wherein each is easily known apart from the other. Living artificially, we seldom see much of our real selves. Our torpid souls are hopelessly entangled with our torpid bodies, and not only is there a confused mingling of our own souls with our own bodies, but we hardly possess a separate existence from our neighbors.
Emphasis added. Muir ends this thought by describing his favored means of independence.
The life of a mountaineer seems to be particularly favorable to the development of soul-life, as well as limb-life, each receiving abundance of exercise and abundance of food.
