Confident assertions in letters are less reliable than considered book claims

Evidence

Even a study of the correspondence should be carried out with certain precautions: a confident assertion made in a letter would perhaps not be repeated in a book. The stylistic vivacity of the letters, though often artistically more effective than the more measured and considered style of a book, can sometimes lead to weaknesses in the argument. In letters, as in speeches or in conversations, logical errors occur more frequently: the greater rapidity of thought is often achieved at the expense of its solidity. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1372

Categorization

• XREF: Methodological caution resonates with how one reads Gramsci’s own fragmentary prison notebooks against his published work.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1372