Education Quote by Joseph Smith, Jr.

A bluff, almost homespun defiance is doing the heavy lifting here: Joseph Smith concedes the credentialed ground ("not learned") while claiming a different kind of authority that can’t be footnoted. It’s a rhetorical pivot designed for a young American republic obsessed with both self-making and suspicion of elites. In one breath, he disarms the educated critic and flatters the ordinary listener who’s been told, implicitly, that truth requires a degree.

The intent is strategic. Smith isn’t apologizing for ignorance; he’s reframing the terms of legitimacy. “Learned” signals formal schooling, the ministerial class, the gatekeepers of doctrine. “Feelings” signals sincerity, moral intuition, spiritual witness - the kind of inner evidence revival culture treated as valid, even superior, to scholarly debate. The line quietly shifts the argument from “Can you parse Greek?” to “Can you recognize the Spirit?” That move matters for a religious founder whose message depends on revelation being accessible to the uncredentialed.

The subtext is a democratic dare: if spiritual insight is measured by refined sentiment rather than academic training, then the hierarchy collapses. Anyone might speak with authority; institutions lose their monopoly. It also functions as preemptive damage control, acknowledging a vulnerability (limited education) while converting it into authenticity. In a culture where charisma and conviction could outrun pedigree, “as good feelings as any man” becomes a claim to equal standing - not just socially, but cosmically.