In reference to Ether 12:26-28

the Lord does not address in this passage the question of our human "weaknesses" (plural) but the question of human "weakness" (singular).  The difference is crucial.  The Lord is not claiming to be responsible for the particulars of whatever various sins or weaknesses we may have.  However, the Lord does claim to he "gives unto men weakness."  The weakness referred to here is constiutive and essential. Rather than naming our sinfulness it names precisely the opposite.  Weakness names our createdness, our lack of autonomous sovereignty, our persistent dependence on God and his grace for life and agency.  In short, weakness names our essential relatedness to God and, thus, our unity with him.  Or, again: our weakness is God's grace.

Adam S. Miller, Rube Goldberg Machines, pg. 104

Our lives are more like a canvas on which we paint, than a script we need to learn--though the illusion of the latter appeals to us by its lower risk.  It is easier to learn a part than create a work of art.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 50

Darwin was sure that even those spectacles of nature that overwhelm us by their beauty, from the peacock's tail to the fragrance of an English rose, serve not man's purpose but their own, which is survival and reproducibility.  If anything in nature could be found that had been "created for beauty in the eyes of man" rather than the good of its possessor, it would be "absolutely fatal" to his theory.  In other words, maple leaves in autumn do not  suddenly transform into stained glass pendants, illuminated by a setting sun, in order to satisfy a human longing for beauty.  Their scarlet, ochre, and golden colors emerge as chlorophyll production shuts down, in preparation for sacrificing the leaves that are vulnerable to winter cold, and ensuring the survival of the tree.  but he tree survives, while our vision is ravished.  The peacock's display attracts a hen, and it nourishes the human eye.  the flower's fragrance entices a pollinator, but it also intoxicates the gardener.  In the "while," in that "and," in that "but it also," we find the giftedness of life.

Therein lies the most telling sign of a vast superabundance.  Nature's purposes and God's purposes are not in competition but work in tandem.  If the first works by blind necessity, the second works by generosity.  And in recognizing the giftedness, we turn from appreciation to gratitude; from admiration for the world's efficiency and order, to love of its beauty and grandeur.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 36

Augustine reported approvingly that when asked what God was doing before creation, a churchman replied, "getting hell ready for those who pry too deep!"

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 14

The search for knowledge is a great adventure consistent with man's need as a child of the great Creator to be creative.  The quest for knowledge, the activity of learning, is as satisfying to the mind as is the final discovery.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 21)

"This record of Adam and his posterity is the only scriptural account we have of the appearance of man upon the earth. But we have also a vast and ever-increasing volume of knowledge concerning man, his early habits and customs, his industries and works of art, his tools and implements, about which such scriptures as we have thus far received are entirely silent. Let us not try to wrest the scriptures in an attempt to explain away what we can not explain. The opening chapters of Genesis, and scriptures related thereto, were never intended as a text-book of geology, archaeology, earth-science or man-science. Holy Scripture will endure, while the conceptions of men change with new discoveries. We do not show reverence for the scriptures when we misapply them through faulty interpretation."

-James E. Talmage, The Earth and Man, Aug. 9, 1931

"All other creatures look down toward the earth, but man was given a face so that he might turn his eyes toward the stars and his gaze upon the sky."

-OVID, Metamorphoses