"Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm"
About this Quote
The phrasing keeps insisting on class and utility: “not an expensive piece of wood… just a common block of firewood.” Collodi’s repetition does two things at once. It sets up a comic contrast with what we know is coming (a talking puppet) and it frames the whole story as an argument about value. If the raw material is literally fuel - meant to disappear into heat and smoke - then transforming it into a “child” becomes a kind of moral and social alchemy: the disposable becomes worth caring about.
Even the domestic image is loaded. Winter, “cold rooms,” the desire to make them “cozy and warm” locates the tale in the anxious economics of the household. Pinocchio’s world isn’t enchanted; it’s precarious. The log exists to be consumed, and that subtext shadows the book’s darker stakes: hunger, labor, obedience, punishment. Collodi, writing in post-unification Italy, uses a children’s fable to talk about nation-making and citizen-making. Start with a log that should be burned, then ask what it takes - discipline, love, violence, luck - to turn it into a person who gets to stay.
Quote Details
| Topic | Book |
|---|---|
| Source | The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio), Carlo Collodi, 1883 — opening passage; standard English translations render the first line as 'Once upon a time there was a piece of wood.' |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Collodi, Carlo. (2026, January 18). Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-piece-of-wood-it-was-9303/
Chicago Style
Collodi, Carlo. "Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-piece-of-wood-it-was-9303/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-piece-of-wood-it-was-9303/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.
