Emerson writes about how people should express their thoughts before it is too late, before someone speaks it for them. This is still relevant today, many times a person will have a good answer to a question, or a good idea but not speak up and then realize they should have when someone else speaks with the same thought and gets a round of questions. cheers for having a great answer or idea. I myself have experienced this before. One day my professor asked the class a question and in my head I answered it, but I didn't want to speak because I thought it wasn't a good answer. Moments later another student responded with the exact same answer I had in my head and the professor responded “that's correct” and the whole time I was thinking to myself “Wow, I should have spoken up”. This is one of many examples of how Emerson's idea of ​​self-confidence is still relevant, people, including myself, should start to have more confidence in themselves and not worry about what others might do.