How do you know? How did you learn what you know? Emerson portrays the American scholar as a person who learns from three sources. These sources by which a scholar is educated are nature, books and action. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American scholar is one whose character is split into many facets.Nature has the most influence on the mind because it is the only resource that is everywhere. In it's natural form …showed first 75 words of 889 total…

…showed last 75 words of 889 total…but question everything. This is how we learn to walk, to swim, to do anything physical like bounce around a basketball. This is how I learned all of these things.Thus, a person learns from experience, the world around him or her, and the past. The best form of learning is not any of these. Not action, nature or books. The best source is a balance between the three. An intricate balance must be maintained.