“Five souls are the most dignified in creation: a scholar who is not self-indulgent (moderate), a Sufi jurisprudent, a humble rich person, a thankful poor one, and a noble who follows the Sunnah.”

— Sufyan al-Thawri

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 28

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Sufyan al-Thawri 9

Muslim Scholar and founder of Thawri Madhhab 716–778

Ashraf Ali Thanwi (1863–1943) Indian Muslim scholar

Ashraf Ali Thānwī, The road to Allāh, p. 7

“A person who is shallow aspires to depth; one who is ugly aspires to beauty; one who is narrow aspires to breadth; one who is poor aspires to wealth; one who is humble aspires to esteem. Whatever one lacks in oneself he must seek outside.”

Xun Zi (-313–-238 BC) Ancient Chinese philosopher

Sources of Chinese Tradition (1999), vol. 1, p. 181
Human nature is evil

“Everyone recognized that only five percent of all the people born ever amount to anything at all. Everyone humbly thanked his providential stars that through his own personal efforts and merit he had become one of the superior five percent. Everyone looked with pity and contempt upon the ninety-five percent who did not share his grace.”

Mark Clifton book They'd Rather Be Right

Source: They'd Rather Be Right (1954), p. 175.

“Who are you inspired by?
Creative people who have made their seemingly most self-indulgent artistic whims into a career.”

Steve Purcell (1959) American cartoonist, animator, film director and game designer

Interview on samandmax.net http://samandmax.net/index.php?section=historyfaq&page=interview1&id=4

“[M]an… whatever the origin of his soul, if it is pure, noble, and lofty, it is a beautiful soul which dignifies the man endowed with it.”

Julien Offray de La Mettrie book Man a Machine

p, 125
Man a Machine (1747)

“The beloved of the Almighty are: the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

Saadi as translated in The Gulistān : Or, Rose-garden, of Shek̲h̲ Muslihu'd-dīn Sādī of Shīrāz as translated by Edward Backhouse Eastwick (1880), p. 203.
Misattributed