Emerson argues that repeated practice is one of the strongest influences on competence. In the surrounding passage, he gives examples from public speaking, language learning, military training and everyday tasks to show how performance improves through sustained repetition. His point is that ability is often developed through use rather than appearing fully formed at the beginning.

The phrase “nine tenths” is rhetorical rather than a literal measurement. Emerson uses it to emphasise the importance of experience and disciplined repetition when compared with natural talent alone. Within Power, the idea supports his broader interest in practical effectiveness: skill becomes reliable when actions are repeated until they can be performed with confidence and precision. The quotation therefore presents practice as a central mechanism of learning and improvement, while implying that early weakness need not determine later ability.

Full quotation

“The worst regular troops will beat the best volunteers. Practice is nine tenths. A course of mobs is good practice for orators. All the great speakers were bad speakers at first. Stumping it through England for seven years, made Cobden a consummate debater. Stumping it through New England for twice seven, trained Wendell Phillips. The way to learn German, is, to read the same dozen pages over and over a hundred times, till you know every word and particle in them, and can pronounce and repeat them by heart. No genius can recite a ballad at first reading, so well as mediocrity can at the fifteenth or twentieth readying. The rule for hospitality and Irish ‘help,’ is, to have the same dinner every day throughout the year. At last, Mrs. O’Shaughnessy learns to cook it to a nicety, the host learns to carve it, and the guests are well served.”