Mother Teresa Quotes

252 Sourced Quotes

Love cannot remain by itself - it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service.

Mother Teresa
A clean heart can see God, can speak to God, and can see the love of God in others.

Mother Teresa
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
Love has a hem to her garment that reaches to the very dust. It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must.

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

Mother Teresa
Charity begins today. Today somebody is suffering, today somebody is in the street, today somebody is hungry. Our work is for today, yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today.

Mother Teresa
Jesus wants me to tell you again...how much is the love He has for each one of you-beyond all what you can imagine...Not only He loves you, even more—He longs for you. He misses you when you don't come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don't feel worthy...

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

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
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
Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. 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. From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortions. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy!

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
Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set. Everyone can reach this love through meditation, spirit of prayer, and sacrifice, by an intense inner life.

Mother Teresa
Let anyone who comes to you go away feeling better and happier. Everyone should see goodness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile. Joy shows from the eyes. It appears when we speak and walk. It cannot be kept closed inside us. It reacts outside. Joy is very infectious.

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

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

Mother Teresa
I do not agree with a big way of doing things. What matters is the individual. If we wait till we get numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers and we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person.

Mother Teresa
To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.

Mother Teresa
Joy must be one of the pivots of our life. It is the token of a generous personality. Sometimes it is also a mantle that clothes a life of sacrifice and self-giving. A person who has this gift often reaches high summits. He or she is like sun in a community.

Mother Teresa
Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of himself.

Mother Teresa
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things.

Mother Teresa
I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one.

Mother Teresa
God doesn't ask that we succeed in everything, but that we are faithful. However beautiful our work may be, let us not become attached to it. Always remain prepared to give it up, without losing your peace.

Mother Teresa
I think that a person who is attached to riches, who lives with the worry of riches, is actually very poor. If this person puts his money at the service of others, then he is rich, very rich.

Mother Teresa
Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other-that man, that woman, that child is my brother or my sister. If everyone could see the image of God in his neighbor, do you think we would still need tanks and generals?

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

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

Mother Teresa