Fools may invent fashions that wise men will wear. [ Proverb ]

Ideals we do not make. We discover, not invent, them. [ Charles H. Parkhurst ]

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him. [ Voltaire ]

If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent one. [ Voltaire ]

It is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent. [ Emerson ]

Life would be easy enough if we were not continually exerting ourselves to forge new chains, and invent absurd formalities which make it a burden.

It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]

There may often be less vanity in following the new modes than in adhering to the old ones. It is true that the foolish invent them, but the wise may conform to, instead of contradicting, them. [ Joubert ]

Irony is to the high-bred what billingsgate is to the vulgar; and when one gentleman thinks another gentleman an ass, he does not say it pointblank, he implies it in the politest terms he can invent. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

There are few thoughts likely to come across ordinary men which have not already been expressed by greater men in the best possible way; and it is a wiser, more generous, more noble thing to remember and point out the perfect words than to invent poorer ones, wherewith to encumber temporarily the world. [ John Ruskin ]