120+ Insightful Mother Teresa Quotes on Charity and God

Blessed Mother Teresa is an honored Saint in the Catholic Church. These Mother Teresa quotes provide insights on love, life, and the power of religion.

By Katee Fletcher

Updated 4 years ago, January 21, 2021

The Vatican City at the Heart of Rome — Christopher Czermak

Blessed Mother Teresa is an honored Saint in the Catholic Church. She is best known for wanting to spread love, kindness, and peace to the world. Here are the best Mother Teresa quotes to get more of an insight into who she was:

About The Blessed Mother Teresa

Blessed Mother Teresa was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26th, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. From the young age of 12, Mother Teresa recognized her call to God and left home at 18 to pursue a life as a missionary. At the start of her journey, she joined a community of Irish nuns named “The Sisters of Loreto,” who had missions in India. After training in Dublin, Mother Teresa took her vows as a nun on May 24th, 1931, and began teaching at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta for the next 17 years.

During her time teaching, she felt a significant calling to work with those struggling in poverty outside the convent walls, so, in 1948, her inspiration led her to change paths and get permission to work amongst Calcutta’s poor. Over the next few years, she began an open-air school for the slum children, and in 1950 she received permission from the Holy See to begin her own order, “The Missionaries of Charity.”

Her order directly impacted the lives of many families living in poverty, and in 1965 it was granted an International Religious Family by Pope Paul VI. Throughout the following years, her order grew to add contemplative and active branches of Sisters, Brothers, and eventually Priests. Aided by the Co-Workers for decades, The Missionaries of Charity provides relief to countries worldwide that are suffering from natural disasters, epidemics, famine, and more. There are also houses established in North America, Australia, and Europe that assist alcoholics, the homeless, and those who have AIDs.

Blessed Teresa’s death on September 5th, 1997, saddened many but, her legacy as a woman of kindness and generosity has continued to linger for decades. Her charity work afforded her many awards throughout her lifetime, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971), the Nehru Prize (1972), the Balzan Prize (1979), the Nobel Peace Prize (1979), and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards. Not to mention, on September 4th, 2016, Pope Francis I canonized Mother Teresa as a Saint, and within 2 months (the shortest time ever for the church), she was beatified. Browse the Mother Teresa quotes below to discover an inspiring quote to share with friends and family or a Mother Teresa quote that sparks a life change.

Mother Teresa Quotes on God, Prayer, and Faith

“The Lord likes small things best, especially those done with love.” -Mother Teresa

“Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” -Mother Teresa

“Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous and mortified person who is 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

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

“I do not pray for success; I ask for faithfulness.” -Mother Teresa

“God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.” -Mother Teresa

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” -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

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

“In the silence of the heart, God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.” -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

“May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.” -Mother Teresa

“At the heart of silence is prayer. At the heart of prayer is faith. At the heart of faith is life.” -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

“God made the world for the delight of human beings– if we could see His goodness everywhere, His concern for us, His awareness of our needs: the phone call we’ve waited for, the ride we are offered, the letter in the mail, just the little things He does for us throughout the day. As we remember and notice His love for us, we just begin to fall in love with Him because He is so busy with us — you just can’t resist Him. I believe there’s no such thing as luck in life; it’s God’s love, it’s His.” -Mother Teresa

“The person who gives with a smile is the best giver because God loves a cheerful giver.” -Mother Teresa

“Suffering is nothing by itself. But suffering shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift, the most beautiful gift, a token of love.” -Mother Teresa

“Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly.” -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

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

“God has not called me to be successful. He has called me to be faithful.” -Mother Teresa

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

“Spread the love of God through your life but only use words when necessary.” -Mother Teresa

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

“Poverty was not created by God. It is we who have caused it, you and I through our egotism.” -Mother Teresa

“We are not called to be successful but faithful.” -Mother Teresa

“The greatest mistake is to think you are too strong to fall into temptation. Put your finger in the fire, and it will burn. So we have to go through the fire.” -Mother Teresa

Encouraging Mother Teresa Quotes on Life

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

“Life is an opportunity; benefit from it. Life is beauty; admire it. Life is a dream; realize it.” -Mother Teresa

“Live simply so others may simply live.” -Mother Teresa

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

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

“There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste, when I see people throwing away things that we could use.” -Mother Teresa

“Life is a challenge; we must take it.” -Mother Teresa

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

“Life is a song; sing it. Life is a struggle; accept it.” -Mother Teresa

“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

woman in white and pink floral shirt raising her hands

Mother Teresa Quotes on Happiness and Peace

“Let us always meet each other with a smile.” -Mother Teresa

“Peace begins with a smile. I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish.” -Mother Teresa

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

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

“There is no key to happiness; the door is always open.” -Mother Teresa

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

“We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly.” -Mother Teresa

“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace; we need love and compassion.” -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 will never justify the suffering, pain, and loss of life your weapons will cause.” -Mother Teresa

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

Mother Teresa Quotes on Kindness and Compassion

“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

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

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

“Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace.” -Mother Teresa

“Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier.” -Mother Teresa

“If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.” -Mother Teresa

“I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.” -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

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

“One of the realities we’re all called to go through is to move from repulsion to compassion and from compassion to wonderment.” -Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa Quotes on Love

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

“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.” -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

“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

“If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.” -Mother Teresa

“Intense love does not measure; it just gives.” -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

“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

“A smile is the beginning of love.” -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

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

“True love is love that causes us pain, that hurts, and yet brings us joy. That is why we must pray to God and ask Him to give us the courage to love.” -Mother Teresa

“The fruit of faith is love, and the fruit of love is service…spread love everywhere you go.” -Mother Teresa

“Love until it hurts.” -Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa Quotes on Taking Care Of Others

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

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

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

“We cannot give what we have not got.” -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

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

“Do you want to do something beautiful for God? There is a person who needs you. This is your chance.” -Mother Teresa

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

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

“A life not lived for others is not a life.” -Mother Teresa

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

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

“At the heart of life is service.” -Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa Quotes on Friendship and Unity

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

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted.” -Mother Teresa

“I have never been in a war before, but I have seen famine and death. I was asking (myself) what do they feel when they do this? I don’t understand it. They are all children of God. Why do they do it? I don’t understand.” -Mother Teresa

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

Concerned Mother Teresa Quotes on the State of the World

“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

“God does not create poverty; we do because we do not share.” -Mother Teresa

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” -Mother Teresa

“Love is not patronizing, and charity isn’t about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same — with charity, you give love, so don’t just give money but reach out your hand instead.” -Mother Teresa

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

“When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.” -Mother Teresa

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” -Mother Teresa

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” -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 we 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

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

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” -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

“Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want.” -Mother Teresa

“Good works are links that form a chain of 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

“It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.” -Mother Teresa

“Work without love is slavery.” -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

“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

“There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.” -Mother Teresa

“We need to realize that poverty doesn’t only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity. We need to love and to be someone for someone else.” -Mother Teresa

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

Other Inspirational Quotes by Mother Teresa

“I think I’m more difficult than critical.” -Mother Teresa

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

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

“I go of my free choice, with the blessing of obedience.” -Mother Teresa

“A way of satisfying our brethrens’ hunger is to share with them whatever we have – to share with them until we ourselves feel what they feel.” -Mother Teresa

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

“If we are humble, nothing will change us, neither praise nor discouragement.” -Mother Teresa

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

“At the moment of death, we will not be judged according to the number of good deeds we have done or by the diplomas we have received in our lifetime. We will be judged according to the love we have put into our work.” -Mother Teresa

“‎Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” -Mother Teresa

“If you are discouraged, it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers.” -Mother Teresa

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

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

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