“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very quiet if only those birds sing there that sang best.”

“The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang the best.”

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

“What is more cheerful, now, in the fall of the year, than an open-wood-fire? Do you hear those little chirps and twitters coming out of that piece of apple-wood? Those are the ghosts of the robins and blue-birds that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last Spring. In Summer whole flocks of them come fluttering about the fruit-trees under the window: so I have singing birds all the year round.”

“Let those who can sing to sing on top of their voices and those who dance to dance to their very best rhythm.”

“For whom, for what, was that bird singing? No mate, no rival was watching it. What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness?”