All those people with unbridled sensuality, unprincipled, with no respect for principle, led astray by favoritism or hostility, <j>stupidity or cowardice, are called ‘an assembly of the dregs’:

that’s what was said by the ascetic who knows. And so those praiseworthy true persons, standing on principle, doing nothing wrong, not led astray by favoritism or hostility, <j>stupidity or cowardice, are called ‘an assembly of the cream’: that’s what was said by the ascetic who knows.”

Numbered Discourses 4.21 3. At Uruvelā At Uruvelā (1st)

So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!” “Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this: