| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 30411 |
| QUOTATION: | It is an immense loss to have all robust and sustaining expletives refined away from one! At ... moments of trial refinement is a feeble reed to lean upon. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Alice James (18481892), U.S. diarist, sister of Henry and William James. letter, Dec. 12, 1889, to her brother, psychologist William James. The Diary of Alice James, ed. Leon Edel (1964). |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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