ennoble

The author makes clear that suffering, despite popular mythology, typically does not ennoble.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

Fort Bragg in North Carolina would be christened Fort Liberty as a reminder of the values that ennoble military service.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 6, 2022

It’s a conviction that allows us to ennoble ourselves with pathos, with rueful maturity, with wisdom won too late.

From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2021

The number of people who, out of civic generosity, think that they can enlarge or ennoble their selves by giving their energies to a good larger than themselves?

From Salon ● May 27, 2019

The king again asked: "O venerable sage, you have named all the good qualities that can ennoble humanity; be kind enough to inform me in what he is wanting."

From The Hindoos as they Are A Description of the Manners, Customs and the Inner Life of Hindoo Society in Bengal by Shib Chunder Bose

Bel Powley and Liev Schreiber breathe life and tenderness into Miep and Otto's partnership, and Powley ennobles Miep with a range of emotions including a plausible measure of humor.

From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2023

Nothing can quite convey the devastation of those who knew and loved “the fallen,” a euphemism that ennobles their sacrifice but also fails to capture the awfulness of violent death.

From Washington Post ● May 29, 2022

We’d like to believe that suffering instructs and ennobles; that our grief, fear and pain increases our sympathy for the grief, fear and pain of others.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 6, 2020

For it must not be presumed that mores necessarily grow worse from knowing the moral sciences, which teach the virtues, indeed, there is not the slightest doubt that moral education amends and ennobles them.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2019

Liberty gives leisure and leisure refines, beautifies and ennobles.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 8 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Political by Robert Green Ingersoll

Better to live in a world where freedom of expression is ubiquitous than one where the “truth” is told to us by a few ennobled journalists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026

The veteran politician was MP for Nelson and Colne from 1974 and 1979 and for Warrington from 1981 to 1997 before being ennobled as Lord Hoyle.

From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2024

And that is the thing about generative AI and language learning models: They exist only by feeding on the ennobled human soul.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2023

And they’re very different from the ennobled peasants in popular genre paintings by artists like the Le Nain brothers in France or cheery laborers by Dutch artist Johannes Lingelbach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2023

These opportunities, therefore, made these men successful, and their outstanding virtue enabled them to recognize that opportunity, whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely happy.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

His balding head’s scraggly hair—in contrast to the wigs worn by just about every Frenchman at the time, no matter the social class—is both ennobling and a bit enfeebling, like an aging but distinguished mane.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Shostakovich’s detractors have accused him of ennobling Stalin while defenders have sought out subtle musical cues of dissent.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2024

It adds an ennobling air to their real function, which is propaganda.

From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2023

Philanthropy, the ennobling pursuit of the rich and famous, is in the headlines.

From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2022

And this confession made his romantic gestures all the more ennobling.

From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan