- “The trendy shops along Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills sell the rarest and most expensive baubles imaginable. South Beach plastic surgeons can turn a toad into a prince (or at least a shiny-faced likeness of one). But boutiques don’t sell character, and plastic surgery can’t remove our hidden insecurities with the touch of a scalpel. We are, each of us, the product of a lifetime of experience that no amount of cash falling on our heads from heaven can alter. The sudden receipt of ‘money without meaning’ only magnifies the personal weaknesses with which each of us live, no matter our station in life.” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 49
- “In terms of preoccupation with self and a fixation on the physical, this is more than social insanity; it is spiritually destructive, and it accounts for much of the unhappiness women, including young women, face in the modern world. And if adults are preoccupied with appearance—tucking and nipping and implanting and remodeling everything that can be remodeled—those pressures and anxieties will certainly seep through to children. At some point the problem becomes what the Book of Mormon called “vain imaginations” (1 Nephi 12:18). And in secular society both vanity and imagination run wild. One would truly need a great and spacious makeup kit to compete with beauty as portrayed in media all around us. Yet at the end of the day there would still be those “in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers” as Lehi saw (1 Nephi 8:27), because however much one tries in the world of glamour and fashion, it will never be glamorous enough.” Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 422-29
- 2 Nephi 13:16 – 24…Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet— 17…Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. 18…In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round tires like the moon; 19…The chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers; 20…The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings; 21...The rings, and nose jewels; 22…The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins; 23…The glasses, and the fine linen, and hoods, and the veils. 24…And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty.