“The woods would be quiet if no bird sang but the one that sang best.”

— Henry Van Dyke

The following information is from the following site: http://pt.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talento , the fourth entry, which gives the citation as (( Henry van Dyke quoted in "Handicapped Individuals Services and Training Act: hearing before the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, second session, on HR 6820 … hearing held in St. Paul, Minn., and Loretto, Minn. on September 2, 1982. "-. 223 Page, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education and Labor. Subcommittee on Select Education - USGPO, 1982 - 257 pages ))
Quoted by Tor Dahl in the document cited https://hdl.handle.net/2027/pur1.32754076335276?urlappend=%3Bseq=229.
A very similar quote appears in an essay entitled "Do What You Can" by "Little Home Body" in the The Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated, Volumes 62-63 (August 1876): "The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there but those that sang best" but states "I know not who said those beautiful words"
However, the quote may have been misattributed to Henry Van Dyke. In "The Two Vocations or the sisters of mercy at home" by Elizabeth Charles (1858) p.34 the following appears: "'Dear Jean', she said,'the woods would be very silent if no bird sang but those that sing best' "
Attributed
Variant: Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Henry Van Dyke 63

American diplomat 1852–1933

Генри Ван-Дайк (1852–1933)

“Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat

“Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Toll Slowly; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“They sang the praises of nature, of the sea, of the woods.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky book The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

Source: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877), IV
Context: They sang the praises of nature, of the sea, of the woods. They liked making songs about one another, and praised each other like children; they were the simplest songs, but they sprang from their hearts and went to one's heart. And not only in their songs but in all their lives they seemed to do nothing but admire one another. It was like being in love with each other, but an all-embracing, universal feeling.