The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.

The saying draws a sharp distinction between “learning” as secondhand knowledge acquired through reading and “wisdom” as judgment formed through lived experience. It suggests that books can inform, broaden perspective, and transmit accumulated insight, but they cannot substitute for the practical testing of ideas in real situations—where consequences, emotions, and moral choices refine understanding. The implied hierarchy is not anti-intellectual; rather, it frames reading as preparatory and life as the arena in which knowledge becomes discernment. In a Victorian self-improvement context often associated with Smiles, the sentiment reinforces the value of character, work, and experience as the means by which education is made truly effective.