help me with a quote: something something porch floorboards something...

March 26, 2019 3:56 PM

The gist of the quote is something like this: We shouldn't emulate the imprudent tenant who tears up the porch floorboards in Winter to feed the stove, only to complain that he has nowhere to sit in Summer. What is the exact quote?

My vague recollection is that it was originally said in the context of environmental stewardship. Possibly an American president or founding father?

I've tried googling almost every variation of key words in the phrase, and although I now know a lot more about tenancy disputes where tenants damage floorboards, I am no closer to the original quote. Any suggestions?

posted by tim_in_oz to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

This maybe?


We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy - sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.

--Thomas Edison, in conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone (1931)

I found this referenced in the book below:

"Uncommon Friends : Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel & Charles Lindbergh". Book by James Newton, 1987. p.31
posted by multivalent at 2:46 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Close... But not quite the sense of the original. Great quote though.
posted by tim_in_oz at 4:16 PM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I wonder if the "chopping down the fence" from this quote, rather than removing the floorboards could've been something in common parlance because of an existing saying/quote. But I couldn't find anything else relating to either of these ideas.
posted by multivalent at 5:50 PM on March 28, 2019