Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.
I have seen soldiers panic at the first sight of battle, and a wounded squire pulling arrows out from his wound to fight and save his dying horse. Nobility is not a birth right but is defined by one's action.
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.
"Every man has his price." This is not true. But for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. To win over certain people to something, it is only necessary to give it a gloss of love of humanity, nobility, gentleness, self-sacrifice - and there is nothing you cannot get them to swallow. To their souls, these are the icing, the tidbit; other kinds of souls have others.
The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self.