A Noble Warned

Ἔθος ἐστὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, εἰ καὶ τῶν θείων ἀλλότριον νόμων, ὅμως ἐπὶ πολλοῖς ἢ γένει, ἢ φρονήσει, ἢ κτήσει, ἢ κάλλει, ἢ ἀξίᾳ ἐπαίρεσθαι. Οὐδὲν δὲ ὠφελεῖ πρὸς ὑπερηφανίαν αὐτοὺς τοὺς ἐκ τῆς γῆς ὄντας, καὶ πάλιν πρὸς αὑτὴν ὑποοστρέφοντας. Τούτων ὅτι οὐδέν σοι τὸ σύνολον πρόσεστιν, οὐδ' ἂν αὐτὸς ἀρνηθείης. Εἰ οὖν πάντων τῶν πρὸς ἔπαρσιν φυσώντων ἐστέρησαι, δυσγενὴς ὧν καὶ πτωχὸς καὶ δύσνους καὶ ἰδιώτης καὶ δύσμορφος, τί ὡς πάντων ἐπιδοξότερος, πολλῶν· αὑτῇ γίνη θορύβων ἀρχηγός; Ἥ γνῶθι τοίνυν σαυτὸν, καὶ σύμμετρον κτησᾶι τὸν τρόπον τῆς οὐδενείας σου, ἢ πρὸς πόνους καὶ κινδύνους παράταξαι, οἶς σε οἱ ἐν δυνάμει ἀμειψονται. Χρυσοῦ γὰρ ἀπορεῖς τοῦ ὁμαλίζοντος πολλάκις τὰς τῶν περιστάσεων καὶ μαστίγων τραχύτητας. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ϟΘ'  Γελασιῳ Δουκι Source: Migne PG 78.249

There is this custom found in many men, which makes them alien to the Divine Laws, that they set up either their lineage, or cleverness, or ability, or physical attractiveness, or honour, as something worthy to glory in. But nothing should incline one to be proud which rising from the earth again into earth perishes. For nothing of these things all together belong to you, nor do they not. If then all these things which inflate nature are stripped away  and you are as one of low birth and poverty and ignorance and baseness and deformity, why act as one most illustrious among many? Know yourself, and have the measure and mark of your own nothingness, preparing against toil and danger, by which you shall be recommended to those who have power. For then you shall be without gold for softening the regular roughness of trials and blows. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 99, To the Duke Gelasius