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ennoble
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  • One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement, and you may have noted that the Republic of Korea--South Korea--has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 Olympics to take place in the North.†   (source)
  • Her modern feminist passion for equality was at war with her nineteenth-century idea of women as the purifying, ennobling element of society, special creatures who ought to be protected and treasured as precious assets of civilization.†   (source)
  • They belonged to me; they ennobled me and gave me some place in the world.†   (source)
  • A feeling of care remained his ultimate mainspring and was not relieved and ennobled by a sense of security.†   (source)
  • Plaster people, in ennobled postures, stiffly wore untouchably new clothes; there was even a little boy, with short, straight pants, bare knees and high socks, obviously a sissy: but he wore a cap, all the same, not a hat like a baby.†   (source)
  • Poor, pitiful, shriveled wretch, with a soul so small that a little pelf would outweigh all things else that dignify or ennoble manhood.†   (source)
  • The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.   (source)
  • Already, she has ennobled me in my own estimation, and made me three times better, wiser, greater than I was.   (source)
  • I hope my films help to ennoble the lives of those who see them.
  • It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.   (source)
  • The very thought of her ennobled and purified him, made him better, and made him want to be better.   (source)
  • All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.   (source)
  • Liberty ennobles humanity.
  • Today we do more than celebrate America, we rededicate ourselves to the very idea of America, an idea born in revolution, and renewed through two centuries of challenge, an idea tempered by the knowledge that but for fate, we, the fortunate and the unfortunate, might have been each other; an idea ennobled by the faith that our nation can summon from its myriad diversity, the deepest measure of unity;   (source)
  • They look on it as a lump of raw material that needs to be processed by them, to be ennobled by their touch.†   (source)
  • I love all that is unusual in you, the good with the bad, and all the ordinary traits of your character, whose extraordinary combination is so dear to me, your face ennobled by your thoughts, which otherwise might not seem handsome, your great gifts and intelligence which, as it were, have taken the place of the will that is lacking.†   (source)
  • He was not deliberately striving for such a goal, but this broad vision came of its own accord as a consolation, like a message sent to him by Lara from her travels, like a distant greeting from her, like her appearance in a dream or the touch of her hand on his forehead, and he loved this ennobling imprint.†   (source)
  • Me, I have not yet been ennobled, so I am on the side of the plain.†   (source)
  • It is for madmen like us, perhaps, to ennoble it again.†   (source)
  • And a peroration addressed to women should have something, you will agree, particularly exalting and ennobling about it.†   (source)
  • Sometimes, he came through to the piping times of peace minus an arm, a leg, or an eye, diminished but ennobled; sometimes his last radiant words were penned on the eve of the attack that took his life.†   (source)
  • You may find it delightful for a while: you certainly won't find it ennobling.†   (source)
  • She came out ennobled by an unselfish sorrow.†   (source)
  • Sanctify the ground with the touch of thy foot, that we may eat the dirt and be ennobled!†   (source)
  • When feeling love exists in us, ennobling, Each well-weighed word is futile and soul-saddening!†   (source)
  • [magnanimously] Oh, he's all right: he only needs the love of a good woman to ennoble him.†   (source)
  • Anyhow, Violet's husband has not been ennobled.†   (source)
  • He was a John the Baptist who took ennoblement rather than repentance for his text.†   (source)
  • I appeal to you as a man ennobled by education….†   (source)
  • I am proud of my descent from a Delaware chief, who was a warrior that ennobled human nature.†   (source)
  • Nothing of that sort can degrade you: you ennoble the occupation of your husband.†   (source)
  • But I did want and long to ennoble some man to high aims; and when I saw you, and knew you wanted to be my comrade, I—shall I confess it?†   (source)
  • Where Zilla mocked him as a country boy, Myra said indignantly that he was ever so much solider than the young dandies who had been born in the great city of Zenith—an ancient settlement in 1897, one hundred and five years old, with two hundred thousand population, the queen and wonder of all the state and, to the Catawba boy, George Babbitt, so vast and thunderous and luxurious that he was flattered to know a girl ennobled by birth in Zenith.†   (source)
  • And Lady Chiltern has a very ennobling effect on life, though her dinner-parties are rather dull sometimes.†   (source)
  • She was fond of pictures and flowers, and of sentimental fiction, and she could not help thinking that the possession of such tastes ennobled her desire for worldly advantages.†   (source)
  • One assumes stupid people must be healthy and vulgar, and that illness must ennoble people and make them wise and special.†   (source)
  • The secret and intended and immoral and illegal and socially unwarranted and condemned use of her body outside the regenerative and ennobling pale of matrimony!†   (source)
  • So I pray you, Senora, before you let Stewart give you freedom at such cost be sure you do not want his love, lest you cast away something sweet and ennobling which you yourself have created.†   (source)
  • She already enjoyed a sufficiency of all that my aunt possessed, in the knowledge that the wealth of the mistress automatically ennobled and glorified the maid in the eyes of the world; and that she herself was conspicuous and worthy to be praised throughout Combray, Jouy-le-Vicomte, and other cities of men, on account of my aunt's many farms, her frequent and prolonged visits from the Cure, and the astonishing number of bottles of Vichy water which she consumed.†   (source)
  • But their influence, though it escapes fame, shall live immortal in the lives that have been sweetened and ennobled by it.†   (source)
  • …and it was at such points as these, too, that he would begin to speak of the "vain dream of life," of the "inexhaustible torrent of fair forms," of the "sterile, splendid torture of understanding and loving," of the "moving effigies which ennoble for all time the charming and venerable fronts of our cathedrals"; that he would express a whole system of philosophy, new to me, by the use of marvellous imagery, to the inspiration of which I would naturally have ascribed that sound of…†   (source)
  • And when the unexpected apparition of Jude's child in the house had shown itself to be no such disturbing event as it had looked, but one that brought into their lives a new and tender interest of an ennobling and unselfish kind, it rather helped than injured their happiness.†   (source)
  • The time element of music is singular: a segment of human earthly existence in which it gushes forth, thereby ineffably enhancing and ennobling life.†   (source)
  • The King came softly to Hendon's side, and whispered in his ear— "Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who is higher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirm thy nobility to men."†   (source)
  • That was what awakened our appreciation tor all things human, weakened and dispelled foolish prejudices and beliefs, led to the civilizing ennoblement and improvement of humankind.†   (source)
  • And quoting the biblical verse "Vengeance is mine," he pointed out that the state, if its purpose was ennoblement and not coercion, should not repay evil with evil, and went on to repudiate the concept of "punishment," after first having refuted that of "guilt," basing his argument on scientific determinism.†   (source)
  • Surely marriage should ennoble a man.†   (source)
  • And the classical concert is admitted to be a higher, more cultivated, poetic, intellectual, ennobling place than the racecourse.†   (source)
  • For the Barnacles, as a group of themselves in creation, had an idea that such distinctions belonged to them; and that when a soldier, sailor, or lawyer became ennobled, they let him in, as it were, by an act of condescension, at the family door, and immediately shut it again.†   (source)
  • Only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life—the life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose within it—can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly annoyances.†   (source)
  • As for me, I consider the union with Mademoiselle Danglars a most suitable one; she will enrich you, and you will ennoble her.†   (source)
  • I am sure I loved that baby quite as truly, quite as tenderly, with greater purity and more disinterestedness, than can enter into the best love of a later time of life, high and ennobling as it is.†   (source)
  • Equality of conditions not only ennobles the notion of labor in men's estimation, but it raises the notion of labor as a source of profit.†   (source)
  • What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation: of all the conflicts and all the sacrifices that ennoble us most.†   (source)
  • His blood boiled with honest British exultation, as he saw the name of Osborne ennobled in the person of his son, and thought that he might be the progenitor of a glorious line of baronets.†   (source)
  • …Pathfinder, by one accustomed to study his fellows, that he was a fair example of what a just-minded and pure man might be, while untempted by unruly or ambitious desires, and left to follow the bias of his feelings, amid the solitary grandeur and ennobling influences of a sublime nature; neither led aside by the inducements which influence all to do evil amid the incentives of civilization, nor forgetful of the Almighty Being whose spirit pervades the wilderness as well as the towns.†   (source)
  • It was quite impossible that he could enter into the sentiments that ennobled his companion, and he broke away from both with an impatience that caused him secretly to curse the folly that could induce a man to rush, as it were, on his own destruction.†   (source)
  • …shorter way to dignity, to observe that—since there never was a true story which could not be told in parables, where you might put a monkey for a margrave, and vice versa—whatever has been or is to be narrated by me about low people, may be ennobled by being considered a parable; so that if any bad habits and ugly consequences are brought into view, the reader may have the relief of regarding them as not more than figuratively ungenteel, and may feel himself virtually in company with…†   (source)
  • …and Guinever Mango as bridesmaids; Colonel Bludyer of the Dragoon Guards (eldest son of the house of Bludyer Brothers, Mincing Lane), another cousin of the bridegroom, and the Honourable Mrs. Bludyer; the Honourable George Boulter, Lord Levant's son, and his lady, Miss Mango that was; Lord Viscount Castletoddy; Honourable James McMull and Mrs. McMull (formerly Miss Swartz); and a host of fashionables, who have all married into Lombard Street and done a great deal to ennoble Cornhill.†   (source)
  • Besides the pleasure, there is always remorse from the indulgence of our passions, and, after all, what have you men to fear from all this? the world excuses, and notoriety ennobles you.†   (source)
  • The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature.†   (source)
  • These opportunities, therefore, made those men fortunate, and their high ability enabled them to recognize the opportunity whereby their country was ennobled and made famous.†   (source)
  • Let, therefore, your illustrious house take up this charge with that courage and hope with which all just enterprises are undertaken, so that under its standard our native country may be ennobled, and under its auspices may be verified that saying of Petrarch: Virtu contro al Furore Prendera l'arme, e fia il combatter corto: Che l'antico valore Negli italici cuor non e ancor morto.†   (source)
  • I want patience, said he, with those who, without wit to enliven or learning to instruct, revile an ennobling profession which, saving the reverence due to the Deity, is the greatest power for happiness upon the earth.†   (source)
  • The view of aggrandizing my family, of ennobling yourself, is what I proceed upon.†   (source)
  • So saying, she embraced him, and for joy Tenderly wept; much won, that he his love Had so ennobled, as of choice to incur Divine displeasure for her sake, or death.†   (source)
  • Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit My fancy to your eyes: when I consider What great creation, and what dole of honour Flies where you bid it, I find that she, which late Was in my nobler thoughts most base, is now The praised of the king; who, so ennobled, Is as 'twere born so.†   (source)
  • It does not appear, from all you have said, how any one perfection is required toward the procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that priests are advanced for their piety or learning; soldiers, for their conduct or valour; judges, for their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or counsellors for their wisdom.†   (source)
  • Meantime, God grants that we have need of you: Our brother is imprison'd by your means, Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility Held in contempt; while great promotions Are daily given to ennoble those That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.†   (source)
  • Fortune had decreed to ennoble this little brook with a higher honour than any of those which wash the plains of Arcadia ever deserved.†   (source)
  • Believe me, my friend, this young man hath the noblest generosity of heart, the most perfect capacity for friendship, the highest integrity, and indeed every virtue which can ennoble a man.†   (source)
  • I hope, therefore, no man will, by the grossest misunderstanding or perversion of my meaning, misrepresent me, as endeavouring to cast any ridicule on the greatest perfections of human nature; and which do, indeed, alone purify and ennoble the heart of man, and raise him above the brute creation.†   (source)
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