No man is the wiser for his learning it may administer matter to work in, or objects to work upon but wit and wisdom are born with a man.

John Selden (1584–1654), an English jurist, antiquary, and Member of Parliament, was famed in his lifetime as much for his conversation as for his scholarship. Many of his most quoted remarks survive not from formal treatises but from table-talk—observations recorded by others after his death. This saying reflects a common early modern distinction between “learning” (book knowledge acquired through study) and “wisdom” or “wit” (judgment, practical intelligence, and native capacity). In Selden’s milieu—where humanist education was prized but also criticized for pedantry—such a remark functions as a caution against mistaking erudition for sound judgment.

Selden argues that learning, by itself, does not make a person wiser. Study can supply raw materials—facts, examples, “objects to work upon”—but the ability to use them well depends on an inborn faculty: wit and wisdom. The point is not anti-intellectual; it acknowledges the utility of education while insisting that judgment is a separate quality. The quote critiques pedantry and the mere accumulation of knowledge, implying that true wisdom lies in discernment, proportion, and the capacity to apply learning to life. It also reflects a broader early modern skepticism about whether education can fundamentally change character or native ability.