Mother Teresa Quotes & Sayings

Small things done with great love will change the world. — Mother Teresa

Be humble and you will never be disturbed. It is very difficult in practice because we all want to see the result of our work. Leave it to Jesus. — Mother Teresa

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts. — Mother Teresa

He has told us that He is the hungry one. He is the naked one. He is the thirsty one. He is the one without a home. He is the one who is suffering. These are our treasures, she said, looking at the rows of pallets in the caravanserai. They are Jesus. — Mother Teresa

If our poor die of hunger, it is not because God does not care for them. Rather, it is because neither you nor I are generous enough. It is because we are not instruments of love in the hands of God. We do not recognize Christ when once again He appears to us in the hungry man, in the lonely woman, in the child who is looking for a place to get warm. — Mother Teresa

I held the Host with two fingers and thought: How small Jesus made Himself, in order to show us that He doesn't expect great things of us, but rather little things with great love. — Mother Teresa

Then we have the silence of the eyes which will always help us to see God. Our eyes are like two windows through which Christ or the world comes to our hearts. Often we need great courage to keep them closed. How often we say, I wish I had not seen this thing, and yet we take so little trouble to overcome the desire to see everything. — Mother Teresa

You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself, but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless. To work without love is slavery. — Mother Teresa

By abortion the Mother does not learn to love, but kills her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women to the same trouble. So abortion leads to more abortion. — Mother Teresa

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

Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come; we must live each day as if it were our last so that when God calls us we already, and prepared, to die with a clean heart. — 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. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. — Mother Teresa

Peace starts with a smile — Mother Teresa

Doctors can heal the body, but it is music that uplifts the spirit. — Mother Teresa

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

If you think well of others, you will also speak well of others and to others. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If your heart is full of love, you will speak of love. — Mother Teresa

If you have a sick or lonely person at home, be there. Maybe just to hold a hand, maybe just to give a smile, that is the greatest, the most beautiful work. — Mother Teresa

How many times we have picked up in the streets human beings who had been living like animals and were longing to die like angels! — Mother Teresa

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

If people spent one hour per week in Eucharistic Adoration, abortion would be ended — Mother Teresa

People crave attention and appreciation more than they do bread. — Mother Teresa

Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway. — Mother Teresa

Living intensely each present day means letting Christ dwell within you. His words are so clear: Today I would like to enter your home. — Mother Teresa

Perpetual Adoration, Eucharistic Adoration offers to our people the opportunity to join those in religious life to pray for the salvation of the world, souls everywhere and peace on earth. We cannot underestimate the power of prayer and the difference it will make in our world — Mother Teresa

Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best. — Mother Teresa

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise. — 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

God does not require that we be successful only that we be faithful. — Mother Teresa

There is no greater sickness in the world today than the lack of love. — Mother Teresa

As soon as we take the enfleshment of God, the incarnation which, for Christians, is represented by the person of Jesus Christ, then we start taking things seriously. — Mother Teresa

God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful. — Mother Teresa

On certain continents poverty is more spiritual than material, a poverty that consists of loneliness, discouragement, and the lack of meaning in life. — Mother Teresa

All that we need to know all the wisdom of the cosmos we will find in our own heart — Mother Teresa

Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. — Mother Teresa

Give that child to me. I want it. I will care for it. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. — Mother Teresa

Be faithful in the little things. — Mother Teresa

I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience? — Mother Teresa

God loves me. I'm not here just to fill a place, just to be a number. He has chosen me for a purpose. I know it. — Mother Teresa

I am only a little pencil in the hand of our Lord. He may cut or sharpen the pencil. He may write or draw whatever and whenever he wants. If the writing or drawing is good, we do not honor the pencil or the material that is used, but rather the one who used it. — Mother Teresa

And if we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? — Mother Teresa

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. — Mother Teresa

I remember I picked up a person from the street who was nearly eaten up with maggots, and he said, I have lived like an animal, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for. — Mother Teresa

The poverty of the West is far more difficult to solve than the poverty of India. — Mother Teresa

It's not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts. Life isn't worth living, unless lived for other people. — Mother Teresa

People are hungry for God. People are hungry for love. Are you aware of that? Do you know that? Do you see that? Do you have eyes to see? Quite often we look but we don't see. We are all passing through this world. We need to open our eyes and see. — Mother Teresa

I have said often, and I am sure of it, that the greatest destroyer of peace in the world today is abortion. If a mother can kill her own child, what is there to stop you and me from killing each other? The only one who has the right to take life is the The One who has created it. — Mother Teresa

Give, but give until it hurts. — Mother Teresa

If faith is lacking, it is because there is too much selfishness, too much concern for personal gain. For faith to be true, it has to be generous and loving. Love and faith go together, they complete each other. — Mother Teresa

Following Jesus is simple, but not easy. Love until it hurts, and then love more. — Mother Teresa

Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer. — Mother Teresa

There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness, and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much. — Mother Teresa

A Christian is the dwelling place of the living God. He created me, he chose me, He came to dwell in me, because he wanted me. Now that you have known how much God is in love with you it is but natural that you spend the rest of your life radiating that love. — Mother Teresa

I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people. — Mother Teresa

I am Albanian by birth. Now I am a citizen of India. I am also a Catholic nun. In my work, I belong to the whole world. But in my heart, I belong to Christ. — Mother Teresa

Joy is strength. — Mother Teresa

Do not let the past disturb you, just leave everything in the Sacred Heart and begin again with joy. — Mother Teresa

If you pray more you will pray better. — Mother Teresa

God hasn't called us to be successful, just faithful. — Mother Teresa

Everybody has something good inside them. Some hide it, some neglect it, but it is there — Mother Teresa

Every adult was once a child free from prejudice. — Mother Teresa

In ... silence we find a new energy and a real unity. God's energy becomes our, allowing us to perform things well. — Mother Teresa

Listen in silence because if your heart is full of other things you cannot hear the voice of God — Mother Teresa

Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen. — Mother Teresa

A beautiful death is for people who lived like animals to die like angels - loved and wanted. — Mother Teresa

We want to create hope for the person ... we must give hope, always hope. — Mother Teresa

It is not enough for us to say: "I love God," but I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? — Mother Teresa

If we really want to love, if we really want to live, we must love until it hurts ... No Rotarian whose motto is Service Above Self, I think, should call himself a Rotarian if he does not make time to serve ... If we love, we begin to serve — Mother Teresa

Holiness is not a luxury for the few; it is not just for some people. It is meant for you and for me and for all of us. It is a simple duty, because if we learn to love, we learn to be holy. — Mother Teresa

Never permit me to disgrace my high vocation by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience. — Mother Teresa

Life isn't about the cherished moments it is also about the hard ones. Just knowing each day that you will arise with the bright shining sun in your eyes. And end with the cool breeze upon your face as you slowly reflect the day that passed by. — Mother Teresa

Love is proved by deeds; the more they cost us, the greater the proof of our love. — Mother Teresa

The other day I dreamed that I was at the gates of heaven. And St. Peter said, 'Go back to Earth, there are no slums up here.' — Mother Teresa

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

Love until it hurts. Real love is always painful and hurts: then it is real and pure. — Mother Teresa

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible. — Mother Teresa

In this world, there is no clarity. There is only love and action. — Mother Teresa

Spread love whenever you go ... — Mother Teresa

You are greater than you know. — Mother Teresa

Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you. — Mother Teresa

Our life of contemplation shall retain the following characteristics:
- missionary: by going out physically or in spirit in search of souls all over the universe.
- contemplative: by gathering the whole universe at the very center of our hearts where the Lord of the universe abides, and allowing the pure water of divine grace to flow plentifully and unceasingly from the source itself, on the whole of his creation.
- universal: by praying and contemplating with all and for all, especially with and for the spiritually poorest of the poor. — Mother Teresa

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

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

O God, how easily I make them happy! Give me strength to be always the light of their lives and so lead them to You! — Mother Teresa

Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family. — Mother Teresa

We are at Jesus' disposal. If he wants you to be sick in bed, if he wants you to proclaim His work in the street, if he wants you to clean the toilets all day, that's all right, everything is all right. We must say, "I belong to you. You can do whatever you like." And this ..is our strength, and this is the joy of the Lord. — Mother Teresa

When you judge someone you have no time to love them. — Mother Teresa

God gives us things to share, God doesn't give us things to hold ... — Mother Teresa

Whatever religion we are, we must pray together. — Mother Teresa

People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. — Mother Teresa

Sometimes it is harder for us to smile at those who live with us, the immediate members of our families, than it is to smile at those who are not so close to us. Let us never forget: love begins at home. — Mother Teresa

Pray for me that I not loosen my grip on the hands of Jesus even under the guise of ministering to the poor. — Mother Teresa

The future is not in our hands. We have no power over it. We can act only today. We have a sentence in our Constitution that says: 'We will allow the good God to make plans for the future - for yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come and we have only today to make Him known, loved and served.' So we do not worry about the future. — Mother Teresa

Self knowledge puts us on our knees, and it is very necessary for love. For knowledge of God gives love, and knowledge of self gives humility — Mother Teresa

Love has no meaning if it isn't shared. We have been created for greater things - to love and to be loved ... To love a person without any conditions, without any expectations. Small things, done in great love, bring joy and peace. To love, it is necessary to give. To give, it is necessary to be free from selfishness. — Mother Teresa

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

Without out suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the Redemption. All the desolation of the poor people, not only their material poverty, but their spiritual destitution, must be redeemed. And we must share it, for only by being one with them can we redeem them by bringing God into their lives and bringing them to God. — Mother Teresa

Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them. — Mother Teresa

The first time I received an award, I was very surprised. I did not know whether to accept it or not. But I came to the conclusion that I should accept awards in the name of the poorest poor, as a form of homage to them. I think that basically, when awards are given to me, the existence of the poor in the world is being recognized. — Mother Teresa

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you've got anyway. — Mother Teresa

The woman is at the heart of the home. Let us pray that we women realize the reason for our existence: to love and be loved and through this love become instruments of peace in the world. — Mother Teresa