“Actually we did not have the feelings we said we had until we spoke them--at least I didn't; to phrase them was to invent them and own them.”
Source: Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories
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Philip Roth 95
American novelist 1933–2018Related quotes

Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds (May 3, 1818)
Letters (1817–1820)
Context: Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses: we read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.
Source: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

“We don't invent our missions, we detect them.”
As quoted in What Matters Most : The Power of Living Your Values (2001) by Hyrum W. Smith , p. 111

A speech given at Manchester UK (18 October 1897) https://ivu.org/history/besant/text.html

On January 21, 1912, upon leaving behind the last navigation beacon at 80° 23' S
Sydpolen (The South Pole) (1912)