80+ Mother Teresa Quotes That Will Inspire You to Make a Difference

Published June 21, 2023
Dubbed “The Living Saint”, Mother Teresa or Saint Teresa of Calcutta is simply one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century. This diminutive woman not only changed how we do charity, she also provided us with a well of motivating and often soul-stirring pearls of wisdom.
So if you’re looking for some inspiration to make a difference, there’s no better person to look up to than Mother Teresa. Her passion for helping the less privileged and serving those whom society has neglected, this unassuming woman in a blue sari proved to us that everyone has the power to change the world.
That said, here are some of the most thought-provoking Mother Teresa quotes that will surely motivate you to make a difference and change the world.
Famous Quotes by Mother Teresa
- Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
- If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
- A life not lived for others is not a life.
- If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.
- I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.
- I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.
- Live simply so others may simply live.
- Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
- 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.
- I do not pray for success; I ask for faithfulness.
- Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.
- Do extraordinary things with love.
Mother Teresa Quotes About Kindness and Charity
- Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
- It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
- I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.
- Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.
- The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
- When you don’t have anything, then you have everything.
- The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.
- The person who gives with a smile is the best giver because God loves a cheerful giver.
- Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
- Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier.
- One of the realities we’re all called to go through is to move from repulsion to compassion and from compassion to wonderment.
- 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.
- Poverty was not created by God. It is we who have caused it, you and I through our egotism.
- I know I am touching the living body of Christ in the broken bodies of the hungry and the suffering.
- I want you to be concerned about your next-door neighbor. Do you know your next-door neighbor?
- We have to possess before we can give.
- Not handouts, but rather hands held.
- We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.
Mother Teresa Quotes About Love
- Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand.
- Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
- Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
- 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.
- If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.
- Love to be real, it must cost – it must hurt – it must empty us of self.
- People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
- Prayer in action is love, love in action is service.
- Work without love is slavery.
- We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved.
- The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action.
- True love is giving and giving until it hurts.
- Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.
- I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
- Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.

Most Inspiring Quotes from Mother Teresa
- We fear the future because we are wasting today.
- Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.
- God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.
- We must never be afraid to be a sign of contradiction for the world.
- Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
- 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.
- If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.
- Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best.
- Life is a challenge; we must take it.
- In order to keep the lamp burning you have to keep putting the oil in it.
- Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
- Yes, you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches, and pleasure make you to forget that you have been created for greater things.
- We interfere with God’s plans when we push in someone or something else not suitable for us. Be strict with yourself, and then be very strict with what you are receiving from the outside.
- I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.
- What you spend years building maybe destroyed overnight; build it anyway.
- If you are discouraged, it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers.
- Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
- He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your weakness.
Mother Teresa Quotes About Family
- 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.
- The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.
- Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.
- We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly.
- If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.
- Peace and war start within one’s own home.
- The openness of our hearts and minds can be measured by how wide we draw the circle of what we call family.
Mother Teresa Quotes About Peace
- Peace begins with a smile.
- We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.
- I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.
- If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
- Whenever you share love with others, you’ll notice the peace that comes to you and to them.
Mother Teresa Quotes About Happiness
- There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
- Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.
- If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
- Profound joy of the heart is like a magnet that indicates the path of life.
- One filled with joy preaches without preaching.
- Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realise it.
- Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it.
- Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen.
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About The Author
Judy Ponio is a professional writer and devoted Christian. She has a passion for writing about topics related to morality and helping the poor and homeless. She is the lead author for the Our Father’s House Soup Kitchen blog.
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