Mother Teresa was born on the 26th of August, 1910, and died on the 5th of September, 1997. She was a Roman Catholic nun who dedicated her life to working in slums in Kolkata, India.
The eldest of three children, she was initially named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. After her father died when she was eight years old, her mother raised the family.
Mother Teresa’s calling to become a missionary developed at an early age, and she became a nun at the age of 18.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity that has since spread to more than 130 countries, houses over 3000 sisters, and is now one of the most recognizable charitable institutions in the world.
Here are 135 quotes from Mother Teresa that will inspire you to be a better person
“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it.” ― Mother Teresa
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”
“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” ― Mother Teresa
“The poor are great! The poor are wonderful! The poor are very generous! They give us much more than what we give them.” ― Mother Teresa
“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
“The openness of our hearts and minds can be measured by how wide we draw the circle of what we call family.” ― Mother Teresa
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” ― Mother Teresa
“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” ― Mother Teresa
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” ― 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
“Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness
“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.” ― Mother Teresa
“There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter.” ― Mother Teresa
“Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.” – Mother Teresa
“Life is love, enjoy it. Life is mystery, know it. Life is a promise, fulfill it.” ― Mother Teresa
“Be kind to each other. It is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness.” ― Mother Teresa
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ― Mother Teresa
“Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.” ― Mother Teresa
“Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.” ― 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
“One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.” ― Mother Teresa
“Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly.” ― Mother Teresa
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa
“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
“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” ― Mother Teresa
“Peace begins with a smile.” ― Mother Teresa
in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” ― Mother Teresa
“If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.” ― Mother Teresa
“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” ― Mother Teresa
“Spread the love of God through your life but only use words when necessary.” ― Mother Teresa
“People are generally irrational, unreasonable and selfish. They deserve to be loved, anyway.” ― Mother Teresa
“Do you want to do something beautiful for God? There is a person who needs you. This is your chance.” ― Mother Teresa
“What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway.” ― Mother Teresa
“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
“If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.” ― 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
“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.” ― Mother Teresa
“The fruit of faith is love,and the fruit of love is service…spread love everywhere u go..”― Mother Teresa
“Profound joy of the heart is like a magnet that indicates the path of life.” ― Mother Teresa
“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
Joy is a net of love in which you can catch souls.” ― Mother Teresa
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. ― 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
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” ― Mother Teresa
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” ― 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
“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.” ― Mother Teresa
“I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?” ― Mother Teresa
“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
“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
“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much” ― 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
“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” ― Mother Teresa
“Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness.” ― Mother Teresa
“Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.” – Mother Teresa
“When you don’t have anything, then you have everything.” ― Mother Teresa
“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
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” – Mother Teresa
“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” ― Mother Teresa
“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”― Mother Teresa
“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.” ― 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
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” ― Mother Teresa
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” ― 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
“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.” ― Mother Teresa
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” ― Mother Teresa
“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.” ― Mother Teresa
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” – Mother Teresa
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” ― Mother Teresa
“Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it.” ― Mother Teresa
“Do extraordinary things with love.” ― Mother Teresa
“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
“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.” – Mother Teresa
“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” ― Mother Teresa
“Whenever you share love with others, you’ll notice the peace that comes to you and to them.” ― Mother Teresa
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa
“Although she be but little, she is fierce.”― Mother Teresa
“We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly.” ― 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
“Jesus said love one another. He didn’t say love the whole world.” ― Mother Teresa
“Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.” ― Mother Teresa
“If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.” ― Mother Teresa
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” ― Mother Teresa
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.” ― Mother Teresa
“The openness of our hearts and minds can be measured by how wide we draw the circle of what we call family.”― Mother Teresa
“I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.” ― Mother Teresa
“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.” ― Mother Teresa
“If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.” ― Mother Teresa
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” ― Mother Teresa
“Abortion kills twice. It kills the body of the baby and it kills the conscience of the mother. Abortion is profoundly anti-women. Three quarters of its victims are women: Half the babies and all the mothers.” ― Mother Teresa
“The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.” ― 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
“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.” – Mother Teresa
“A life not lived for others is not a life.” ― Mother Teresa
“God does not create poverty; we do, because we do not share.” ― Mother Teresa
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” ― Mother Teresa
“Do we know our poor people? Do we know the poor in our house, in our family? Perhaps they are not hungry for a piece of bread. Perhaps our children, husband, wife, are not hungry, or naked, or dispossessed, but are you sure there is no one there who feels unwanted, deprived of affection?” ― 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
“The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.” ― Mother Teresa
“Spread love everywhere you go; first of all in your house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” ― Mother Teresa
“God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.” ― 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
“I am nothing; I am but an instrument, a tiny pencil in the hands of the Lord with which He writes what he likes. However imperfect we are, he writes beautifully.” ― Mother Teresa
“Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile.” ― Mother Teresa
“Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous and mortified person who forgetting all things, even herself, tries to please her God in all she does for souls. Cheerfulness is often a cloak which hides a life of sacrifice and a continual union with God.”― Mother Teresa
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” ― Mother Teresa
“Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God – the rest will be given.” ― Mother Teresa
“Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want.” – Mother Teresa
“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.” ― Mother Teresa
“Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” ― Mother Teresa
“Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.” ― Mother Teresa
“Together we can do great things.”― Mother Teresa
“I go of my free choice, with the blessing of obedience.” ― Mother Theresa
“Work without love is slavery.” ― Mother Teresa
“Words that do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.” ― Mother Teresa
“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.” – 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
“I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.” ― Mother Teresa
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.
I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ― Mother Teresa
“God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.” ― Mother Teresa
“I want you to be concerned about your next-door neighbor. Do you know your next-door neighbor?.” ― 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
“Peace begins with a smile.” ― 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
“God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.” ― Mother Teresa
“Live simply so others may simply live.” ― 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
“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
“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no “more hurt, only more love.” ― Mother Teresa
