Yahya bin Ayyub al-'Aabid: I heard them in the city of Marw saying "ath-Thawree has arrived! ath-Thawree has arrived! ath-Thawree has arrived!" So I went out to look and there I saw a young boy who had just started growing a beard.

'AbdurRazzaq: Sufyaan said, "My heart never deceived (i.e. I never forgot) me in anything I put in it."

ath-Thahabee: The best chain of narrators in Iraaq is, Sufyaan - Mansoor - Ibraaheem - 'Alqamah.

Shu'bah, Ibn 'Uyaynah, Aboo 'Aasim and Yahya bin Ma'een amongst others all said: Sufyaan ath-Thawree is the Aamir-ul-Mu'mineen fil hadeeth.

'Abdullaah bin Mubaarak: "I wrote (hadeeth) from 1100 Shaykhs, and I did not write from anyone better than Sufyaan. I never met anyone better than Sufyaan."

Yunuus bin 'Ubeeyd: "I never saw anyone better than Sufyaan." So it was said to him, but you met Sa'eed bin Jubayr, Ibraaheem an-Nakha'ee and 'Ata bin Abee Rabaha aswell as Mujaahid? Whereupon he replied, "It is as I said, I never saw anyone better than Sufyaan"

Shu'bah: "Sufyaan increased mankind both in Wara' (piety) and 'Ilm (knowledge)"

Aboo Mu'aawiyah: "I have never seen anyone who knew more about al-'Amash's hadeeth than ath-Thawree"

Yahya bin Sa'eed: "Sufyaan knows the hadeeths of al-'Amash better than al-'Amash himself!"

al-Fudhayl bin 'Iyyaadh: "Sufyaan was by Allaah more knowledgeable than Aboo Haneefah"

Bishr al-Haafi: "Sufyaan was in our time in the same status that Aboo Bakr and 'Umar were in their time."

Aboo Bakr bin 'Ayyaash: "When I see a person in the company of Sufyaan ath-Thawree I automatically think highly of him"

Imaam Ahmad bin Hanbal: "Do you know who the (real) Imaam is? It is Sufyaan ath-Thawree, no one has a higher place than him in my heart"

Yusuf bin Asbaat: Sufyaan was asked a question once whilst trading, he replied, "Leave me because my heart is preoccupied with Dirhams"

Yusuf bin Asbaat: "Whenever Sufyaan ath-Thawree used to remember the hereafter he would urinate blood."

Yahyha al-Qattaan: I heard Sufyaan ath-Thawree saying, "Verily the worst occupation is to seek the dunya through the actions of the hereafter"

Yahya bin Yamaan: Sufyaan ath-Thawree said, "Money is the disease of this world and the doctor is the Scholar. If the Doctor himself accumulates the disease when will the people be cured then?"

[Taken from the book "Siyaar 'Alaam an-Nubalaa"]