Mother Teresa was an inspiration to millions of people all over the world because she dedicated her life to helping others.
She was greatly admired for the way in which she lived her life, selflessly sacrificing herself to her mission. In doing so she became an iconic symbol for charitable work around the world.
The love and compassion she showed to people of all faiths won her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, all of which she donated to the poor.
While Mother Teresa found her inspiration from Catholic teachings she gained widespread affection and admiration from her adopted home of Calcutta, India by respecting local traditions and faiths and always placing humanity over religious divisions.
In 1950 she set up the charitable organisation the Missionaries Of Charity, and by 2013 that had grown to over 700 missions in 130 countries, providing soup kitchens, centers for family assistance, orphanages, schools, hospitals and homes for people with diseases such as leprosy, AIDS and tuberculosis.
No matter what your belief system, there is much to be learned and gained from someone so selfless and loving, so kind and considerate, and someone so revered for very good reason. Below I’ve put together 77 of the best Mother Teresa quotes on life and love.
77 Mother Teresa Quotes
1. “Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.” – Mother Teresa
2. “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” – Mother Teresa
3. “Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” – Mother Teresa
4. “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.” – Mother Teresa
5. “Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.” – Mother Teresa
6. “Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.” – Mother Teresa
7. “Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.” – Mother Teresa
8. “One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.” – Mother Teresa
9. “Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.” – Mother Teresa
10. “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Teresa
11. “Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa
12. “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” – Mother Teresa
13. “Intense love does not measure, it just gives.” – Mother Teresa
14. “Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.” – Mother Teresa
15. “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” – Mother Teresa
16. “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” – Mother Teresa
17. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa
18. “Live simply so others may simply live.” – Mother Teresa
19. “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa
20. “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa
21. “God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.” – Mother Teresa
22. “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa
23. “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” – Mother Teresa
24. “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” – Mother Teresa
25. “Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.” – Mother Teresa
26. “The world is changed by your example, not your opinion.” – Mother Teresa
27. “We fear the future because we are wasting today.” – Mother Teresa
28. “Smile at each other. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other – it doesn’t matter who it is – and that will help to grow up in greater love for each other.” – Mother Teresa
29. “Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.” – Mother Teresa
30. “Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.” – Mother Teresa
31. “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa
32. “A life not lived for others is not a life.” – Mother Teresa
33. “What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway.” – Mother Teresa
34. “There are many people who can do big things, but there are very few people who will do the small things.” – Mother Teresa
35. “Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.” – Mother Teresa
36. “Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.” – Mother Teresa
37. “We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.” – Mother Teresa
38. “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” – Mother Teresa
39. “If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.” – Mother Teresa
40. “We learn humility through accepting humiliations cheerfully.” – Mother Teresa
41. “The trees, the flowers, the plants grow in silence. The stars, the sun, the moon move in silence. Silence gives us a new perspective.” – Mother Teresa
42. “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa
43. “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” – Mother Teresa
44. “If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.” – Mother Teresa
45. “People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.” – Mother Teresa
46. “Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.” – Mother Teresa
47. “When you don’t have anything, then you have everything.” – Mother Teresa
48. “If I look at the mass I will never act.” – Mother Teresa
49. “Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.” – Mother Teresa
50. “The greatest good is what we do for one another.” – Mother Teresa
51. “If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.” – Mother Teresa
52. “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa
53. “There is no key to happiness; the door is always open.” – Mother Teresa
54. “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
55. “Nothing makes you happier than when you really reach out in mercy to someone who is badly hurt.” – Mother Teresa
56. “Do not worry about why problems exist in the world – just respond to people’s needs.” – Mother Teresa
57. “Never be so busy as not to think of others.” – Mother Teresa
58. “The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.” – Mother Teresa
59. “We have not come into the world to be numbered; we have been created for a purpose; for great things: to love and be loved.” – Mother Teresa
60. “I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one.” – Mother Teresa
61. “If you can’t do great things, do little things with great love. If you can’t do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can’t do them with a little love, do them anyway.” – Mother Teresa
62. “You are greater than you know.” – Mother Teresa
63. “Be kind to each other. It is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness.” – Mother Teresa
64. “It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” – Mother Teresa
65. “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.” – Mother Teresa
66. “If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.” – Mother Teresa
67. “God does not create poverty; we do, because we do not share.” – Mother Teresa
68. “I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.” – Mother Teresa
69. “Your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do ‘Nothing’ for you.” – Mother Teresa
70. “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want.” – Mother Teresa
71. “If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank people will try to cheat you: Be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight: Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous of you: Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten by tomorrow: Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway.” – Mother Teresa
72. “Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa
73. “The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” – Mother Teresa
74. “The openness of our hearts and minds can be measured by how wide we draw the circle of what we call family.” – Mother Teresa
75. “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”” – Mother Teresa
76. “No matter how tired you are, no matter how physically exhausting this work may be, it’s beautiful to bring a smile into someone’s life, to care for someone in need. What greater joy can there be?” – Mother Teresa
77. “If each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole World would be clean.” – Mother Teresa
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