Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The program’s official goal sounds noble: “To develop in children the need for self-cultivation of such moral qualities as honor, conscientiousness, responsibility.”

From Slate • Oct. 18, 2025

According to the paper, private self-cultivation would be permitted to a limited extent.

From Reuters • Oct. 26, 2022

There is often a connection between the virtuous life and the good life in virtue ethics because of its emphasis on character and self-cultivation.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

Confucianism proposes the idea that people are fundamentally good, that we are capable of improving ourselves through education and self-cultivation.

From New York Times • Nov. 25, 2019

It is most hard to be a man; and the Pilgrims sole consolation is in self-cultivation, and in the pleasures of the affections.

From The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir