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The
Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods Library
Thoreau's
Life & Writings
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Henry D. Thoreau Mis-Quotations Pages
“Use what talent
you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except
those that sang best.”
The first known use,
although it was unattributed, is from The Ladies Repository: A Monthly
Periodical, Devoted to Literature, Arts, and Religion,
September 1874, p. 231. It was
reprinted two years later in The Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial
Star, number 37, volume XXXVIII (Monday: September 11, 1876) p.
583.
This quotation has also been
erroneously and extensively attributed
to Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933).
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