It's meant to teach the young men that mastery comes from within, not from external trappings.

The Hasmoneans themselves became Hellenized, adopting at the very least the external trappings of Greek culture, administration, clothing and speech.

It was the chubbiness and the layers of chin, plus the external trappings 6f power, Duncan had guessed, that deceived the court visitor.

Both the play and the novel pose the question of whether or not man needs God, or at least the external trappings of religion.

And that works all the way from the external trappings to the level of metaphor, subtext, and the way one uses words.

One reason why the early monks disliked the episcopal system was that it was identified with the external trappings of worldly society.

Moving from her external trappings to her internal structure, he represents her as a sort of wooden skeleton.

You have all the external trappings.

The meaning of this strange episode seems to suggest that the external trappings of a religion do not always correspond to its spiritual or mystical element.

Courier has found that the external trappings of tennis success, like his nonpareil ranking and megamillion-dollar endorsements, don't qualify a person for internal serenity.