Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.  ~Author unknown, quoted in The Ladies Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature, Arts, and Religion, September 1874, commonly misattributed to Henry Van Dyke and Henry David Thoreaualso sometimes misquoted as Use the talents you possess – for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best. walden.org/Library/Quotations/The_Henry_D._Thoreau_Mis-Quotation_Page