elevation

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful." ~Edgar Allan Poe

“Humanity is exalted not because we are so far above other living creatures, but because knowing them well elevates the very concept of life." ~Edward O. Wilson