To repeat what others have said requires education. To challenge it requires brains.

The aphorism contrasts two kinds of intellectual performance. “Education” is framed as the capacity to absorb and reproduce established ideas—competent, socially rewarded, but essentially derivative. “Brains,” by contrast, signals independent judgment: the ability to test, dispute, or overturn received wisdom. The point is not anti-education so much as a warning against mistaking credentialed repetition for genuine thinking. In a culture that often prizes correct citation and conformity, Poole elevates skepticism, originality, and critical reasoning as the higher mental achievement, implying that progress depends on those willing to question what is already accepted.