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Use any search engine with the search query '"from the clippings and shavings of angels' wings" Kipling' and you will find many results. For example:

Rudyard Kipling described the powerful elixir as being made "from the clippings and shavings of angels wings", but ...

... with Rudyard Kipling going as far as to state that they were made "from the clippings and shavings of angels' wings".

And from Wikipedia:

... including Rudyard Kipling, who described the drink as being made "from the clippings and shavings of angels' wings"

All search results are modern, so I will accept the answer that presents the earliest instance of the quote. I will also provide a bounty to the answer that identifies the originator of the quote.

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Most likely that quote was twisted from Kipling's book Debits and Credits:

There was, too, a bottle beyond most known sizes, marked black on red, with a date. Monsieur Voiron opened it, and we drank to the health of my car. The velvety, perfumed liquor, between fawn and topaz, neither too sweet nor too dry, creamed in its generous glass. But I knew no wine composed of the whispers of angels' wings, the breath of Eden and the foam and pulse of Youth renewed. So I asked what it might be. 'It is champagne,' he said gravely. 'Then what have I been drinking all my life?' 'If you were lucky, before the War, and paid thirty shillings a bottle, it is possible you may have drunk one of our better-class tisanes.' 'And where does one get this?' 'Here, I am happy to say. Elsewhere, perhaps, it is not so easy. We growers exchange these real wines among ourselves.'

I'll note that Kipling seems to have been quite fond of the phrase "angels' wings" -- he used it a number of times in his writing. So it is possible (though somewhat unlikely) that he used "clippings and shavings from angels' wings" in another work.

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  • Thanks for answering! Did you find it because you personally read Kipling? I assume you used kipling "angels' wings" as the search query. Apr 9, 2019 at 23:11
  • @BarryHarrison - I found it because of Google. Apr 9, 2019 at 23:12
  • Do you have some timeframe as to when the quote originated? Apr 9, 2019 at 23:13
  • Alas, Gutenberg doesn't include a publication date. But no doubt the book is discussed elsewhere. Apr 9, 2019 at 23:16
  • A quick Google shows 1926 as the first publication date. Apr 9, 2019 at 23:17

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