A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.
Interpretation
A truly complete individual relies on their own strength and character rather than seeking external validation or support.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote emphasizes the importance of self-sufficiency and personal integrity. A complete person possesses inner strength and confidence that allow them to engage with the world authentically, without the need for external aids or approval. This idea suggests that true fulfillment comes from within, and that one's personal presence and essence should be enough to navigate life's challenges and relationships.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-esteem, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of believing in oneself.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
By and large a good rule for finding out is this: the kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work a) that you need most to do and b) the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you've missed requirement b).
Over the years I have discovered that ideas come through an intense desire for them; continually desiring, the mind becomes a watchtower on the lookout for incidents that may excite the imagination.
His ignorance seemed to widen with everything he read.
I longed for literary celebrity even as I saw with my own eyes how little happiness it brought.
I think one of the main reasons I write is to do better than ranting. The ranting is the opinion, and the writing is not the opinion. I always say that people's opinions are the worst things about them. The words demand a dignity.
I wish to become rich, so that I can instruct the people and glorify honest poverty a little, like those kind hearted, fat, benevolent people do.
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