85 Mother Teresa Quotes On Love, Generosity, Kindness

Here are 85 of the most inspiring Mother Teresa quotes I could find.

What’s the goal?

To inspire you and show you the power of generosity, love, and kindness.

Indeed, you’ll find quotes about

• Happiness
• Life
• Love
• Sacrifice
• God
• Peace
• Community
• And many more topics

Mother Teresa is one of the first women I discovered in the world of quotes.

And I was amazed by her history of devotion towards the poor and her charitable work.

I hope you’ll love her quotes as much as I do.

Enjoy!

If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Mother Teresa

If you want to change the world, go home and love your family. Mother Teresa

People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. Mother Teresa

It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving. Mother Teresa

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Teresa

God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try. Mother Teresa

Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love. Mother Teresa

If we worry too much about ourselves, we won’t have time for others. Mother Teresa

Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons. Mother Teresa

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway. Mother Teresa

The first step to becoming is to will it. Mother Teresa

Prayer in action is love, love in action is service. Mother Teresa

The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action. Mother Teresa

Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you. Mother Teresa

Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Mother Teresa

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Quick facts
Name at birth: Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu
Also known as Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu
Place: Skopje, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997 (aged 87)
Occupation: Roman Catholic nun and missionary
Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979
More Mother Teresa facts (Wikipedia page)

The Best Mother Teresa Quotes

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Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Mother Teresa

I want you to be concerned about your next-door neighbor. Do you know your next-door neighbor? Mother Teresa

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. Mother Teresa

Intense love does not measure, it just gives. Mother Teresa

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. Mother Teresa

I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much. Mother Teresa

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen. Mother Teresa

I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness. Mother Teresa

The success of love is in the loving – it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done. Mother Teresa

Do ordinary things with extraordinary love. Mother Teresa

How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers. Mother Teresa

The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small. Mother Teresa

Do not worry about why problems exist in the world – just respond to people’s needs. Mother Teresa

If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive. Mother Teresa

Love to be real, it must cost — it must hurt — it must empty us of self. Mother Teresa

Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more. Mother Teresa

A life not lived for others is not a life. Mother Teresa

Keep the corners of your mouth turned up. Speak in a low, persuasive tone. Listen; be teachable. Laugh at good stories and learn to tell them…For as long as you are green, you can grow. Mother Teresa

It is easy to be proud and harsh and selfish – so easy. But we have been created for better things. Mother Teresa

I fear just one thing: Money! Greed was what motivated Judas to sell Jesus. Mother Teresa

Part 2. Mother Teresa Quotes That Are…

The Most Famous Mother Teresa Quotes

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Peace begins with a smile. Mother Teresa

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. Mother Teresa

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. Mother Teresa

The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. Mother Teresa

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. Mother Teresa

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Mother Teresa

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. Mother Teresa

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. Mother Teresa

Live simply so others may simply live. Mother Teresa

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody. Mother Teresa

Please choose the way of peace. In the short term there may be winners and losers in this war that we all dread. But that never can, or never will justify the suffering, pain and loss of life your weapons will cause. Mother Teresa

Work without love is slavery. Mother Teresa

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. Mother Teresa

Inspirational Mother Teresa Quotes

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Life is a challenge, we must take it. Mother Teresa

We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion. Mother Teresa

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

Joy is a net of love in which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa

Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly. Mother Teresa

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

Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. Mother Teresa

I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, “How many good things have you done in your life?” rather he will ask, “How much love did you put into what you did?” Mother Teresa

It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Mother Teresa

Jesus said love one another. He didn’t say love the whole world. Mother Teresa

I am only a pencil in the hand of God, but it is He who writes. Mother Teresa

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. Mother Teresa

The less we have, the more we give. Seems absurd, but it’s the logic of love. Mother Teresa

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Mother Teresa

There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. Mother Teresa

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

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

I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use. Mother Teresa

The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are. Mother Teresa

Sometimes a good feeling from inside is worth much more than a beautician. Mother Teresa

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Mother Teresa

Wise Mother Teresa Quotes

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If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve. Mother Teresa

If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. Mother Teresa

Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other’s faults and failures. Mother Teresa

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa

We fear the future because we are wasting today. Mother Teresa

Profound joy of the heart is like a magnet that indicates the path of life. Mother Teresa

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home. Mother Teresa

These are the few ways we can practice humility: To speak as little as possible of one’s self. To mind one’s own business. Not to want to manage other people’s affairs. To avoid curiosity. To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully. To pass over the mistakes of others. To accept insults and injuries. To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked. To be kind and gentle even under provocation. Never to stand on one’s dignity. To choose always the hardest. Mother Teresa

If I look at the mass I will never act. Mother Teresa

When you don’t have anything, then you have everything. Mother Teresa

I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things. Mother Teresa

Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own. Mother Teresa

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

It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start. Mother Teresa

Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. Mother Teresa

Related: Mother Teresa, the nun who became a saint (4-minute video by bbc.com)

Part 3. Conclusion

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We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls. Mother Teresa

After all these beautiful quotes by Mother Teresa, if you still find it hard to be faithful, keep in mind that she, herself, had difficulties too sometimes. Mother Teresa

Where is my faith? Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. … If there be God – please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Mother Teresa

Further Readings

• Topic: Life And Inspiration
• 100 Short Quotes That Will Inspire You (Fast)
• 79 Positive Quotes To Uplift Yourself
• 100 Inspirational Quotes For Women To Empower You
• 100 Maya Angelou Quotes (On Life, Love, Courage)
• 6 Life-Changing Lessons from Mother Teresa (beliefnet.com)
• 75 Words of Wisdom From The Best Minds (Ever)
• Simple Living: 30 Ways To Simplify Your Life

I hope you enjoyed these inspiring Mother Teresa quotes. If you did, please share them with a friend today!

What’s your favorite Mother Teresa quote? And remember: words can transform your life, if you find the right ones.