Monergism

Poverty of spirit is the abiding awareness that spiritually speaking we are bankrupt. As human beings, we do not have the spiritual resources in ourselves to be pleasing to God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and, “Apart from Me you can do nothing,” is Jesus teaching us that our need is to maintain an abiding awareness and confession of our spiritual poverty and a complete dependence on Him.
There are some weeds that will grow anywhere; and one of them is Pride. Pride will grow on a rock as well as in a garden. Pride will grow in the heart of a shoe-black as well as in the heart of an alderman. Pride will grow in the heart of a servant girl and equally as well in the heart of her mistress. And pride will grow in the pulpit. It is a weed that is dreadfully rampant. It needs cutting down every week, or else we should stand up to our knees in it. This pulpit is a shocking bad soil for pride!
C.H. Spurgeon from “Preach the Gospel”

[The Doctrines of Grace] tell us that God is the one who saves, for His own glory, and freely. And they tell us that He does so only through Christ, only on the basis of His grace, only with the perfection that marks everything the Father, Son, and Spirit do. The doctrines of grace separate the Christian faith from the works-based religions of men. They direct us away from ourselves and solely to God's grace and mercy. They destroy pride, instill humility, and exalt God. And that's why so many invest so much time in the vain attempt to undermine their truth. The religions of men maintain authority over their followers by 1) limiting God's power, 2) exalting man's abilities, and 3) "channeling" God's power through their own structures. A perfect salvation that is freely bestowed by God for His own glory is not a "system" that can be controlled by a religious body or group. And even more importantly, such a system is destructive of any sense of pride in the creature man, and if there is anything man's religions must safeguard, it is man's "self esteem."
James White

If pride is the self-centered disposition to determine one’s own reality, to be god of one’s own life, to say in every act and word, “My will be done,” then humility cannot be merely the ability to forget one's self (that is, to be self-uncentered) or even less the ability to be self-pitying, which is really just pride in reverse; rather, humility is the ability to find one's center in the God whose overwhelming loveliness and glory are able to dethrone us from the usurped lordship of our own darkened hearts. Humility is spiritual sanity. Its constant refrain is, "God is God and I am not."
Monergism.com (Aaron Orendorff)