The Most Poignant Quotes by Mother Teresa

Someone like Mother Teresa comes along once in a generation. She was born on August 26, 1910, as Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu in Skopje under the Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia). She grew up in a devout Catholic family and quickly took to the faith. Early on, she became fascinated with the lives and services of missionaries in the Bengal region of India. By age twelve, however, she decided to dedicate her life to religion. Teresa joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland upon reaching adulthood before moving to India. There, she pursued her life’s work.

She founded the Missionaries of Charity which became dedicated to serving the poorest residents of Calcutta. For decades, she worked tirelessly to help the least fortunate. In the process, the Missionaries of Charity grew into a massive congregation, serving 133 countries by opening soup kitchens, hospitals, schools, and orphanages. For her commitment to the disenfranchised, Teresa received a long list of honors including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, before being canonized by the Catholic Church. Along the way, Mother Teresa became known for her sense of humility, kindness, and grace. Let’s explore some of her most poignant nuggets of wisdom. (For quotes from famous athletes, explore over 50 life-changing quotes from Michael Jordan. )

To compile a list of the most poignant Mother Teresa quotes, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of lifestyle and spirituality publications including Country Living , Parade Magazine , and Our Father’s Soup Kitchen . Next, we picked quotes from throughout Mother Teresa’s life that speak to the power of kindness, joy, and modesty. After that, we confirmed aspects of our research using sites like Britannica and Catholic Online .

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

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‎”Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

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

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“God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.”

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

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“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.”

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“Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it.”

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

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

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

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“Humility is truth, therefore in all sincerity, we must be able to look up and say, I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. By yourself you can do nothing, have nothing but sin, weakness and misery. All the gifts of nature and grace you have them from God.”

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

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

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“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.”

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

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

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

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“Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.”

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

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“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.”

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

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“People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.”

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

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“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”

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“I know I am touching the living body of Christ in the broken bodies of the hungry and the suffering.”

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

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“One filled with the joy preaches without preaching.”

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“Prayer in action is love, love in action is service.”

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“Work without love is slavery.”

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“Joy is a net of love in which you can catch souls.”

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

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“The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.”

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“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.”

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“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.”

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“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.”

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“I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.”

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“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.”

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“Live simply so others may simply live.”

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“Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand.”

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

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

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

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“A life not lived for others is not a life.”

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

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

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“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”

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“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.”

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

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“If now we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten how to see God in one another.”

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

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“Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway.”

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“We must never be afraid to be a sign of contradiction for the world.”

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

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

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(For unconventional methods of worship, learn about this Hindu sect that lives in cemeteries and eats out of skulls. )

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