Top 500 Mother Teresa Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “If you are hungry to hear the voice of God, you will hear. To hear, you have to cut out all other things.”

— Mother Teresa

352. “The simplest way of becoming his light is by being kind and loving, thoughtful, and sincere with others: ‘By this they will know that you are his disciples.’”

— Mother Teresa

353. “Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come; we must live each day as if it were our last so that when God calls us we already, and prepared, to die with a clean heart.”

— Mother Teresa

354. “We need prayer to understand God’s love for us. If we really mean to pray and want to pray we must be ready to do it now. These are only the first steps towards prayer but if we never make the first step with determination, we will not reach the last one: the presence of God.”

— Mother Teresa

355. “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

356. “Keep Giving Jesus to the people, not by words but by your example, by being in love with Jesus, by radiating holiness and spreading his fragrance of love everywhere you go. Just keep the joy of Jesus as your strength, be happy and at peace.”

— Mother Teresa

357. “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

358. “I remember I picked up a person from the street who was nearly eaten up with maggots, and he said, I have lived like an animal, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for.”

— Mother Teresa

359. “Joy is strength- Joy is love – Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. She gives most who gives with Joy.”

— Mother Teresa

360. “There are only two ways: either we love-and love in action is service – or we put hatred into action and destroy.”

— Mother Teresa

361. “Once we take our eyes away from ourselves, from our interests, from our own rights, privileges, ambitions – then they will become clear to see Jesus around us.”

— Mother Teresa

362. “What you do to these men on California’s Death Row, you do to God.”

— Mother Teresa

363. “The trouble is that rich people, well-to-do people, very often don’t really know who the poor are; and that is why we can forgive them, for knowledge can only lead to love, and love to service. And so, if they are not touched by them, it’s because they do not know them.”

— Mother Teresa

364. “Communion with Christ gives us our strength, our joy, and our love.”

— Mother Teresa

365. “We do not strive for spectacular actions. What counts is the gift of yourself, the degree of love you put into each of your deeds.”

— Mother Teresa

366. “Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me.”

— Mother Teresa

367. “People are hungry for God. Do you see that? Quite often we look but do not see. We are all passing through this world. We need to open our eyes and see.”

— Mother Teresa

368. “It takes oil to keep the lamps burning.”

— Mother Teresa

369. “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

370. “Hungry not only for bread – but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing – but naked of human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a home of bricks – but homeless because of rejection.”

— Mother Teresa

371. “Holiness is not a luxury for the few; it is not just for some people. It is meant for you and for me and for all of us. It is a simple duty, because if we learn to love, we learn to be holy.”

— Mother Teresa

372. “When I was crossing into Gaza, I was asked at the checkpost whether I was carrying any weapons. I replied: Oh yes, my prayer books.”

— Mother Teresa

373. “The way to plan the family is natural family planning not contraception. In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self, and so it destroys the gift of life in him or her.”

— Mother Teresa

374. “How sad it is when someone comes to you looking for Jesus and all they see is you.”

— Mother Teresa

375. “If we were humble, nothing would change us-neither praise nor discouragement. If someone were to criticize us, we would not feel discouraged. If someone would praise us, we also would not feel proud.”

— Mother Teresa

376. “Words lead to deeds, they prepare the soul, make it ready, and move it to tenderness.”

— Mother Teresa

377. “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

378. “Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile.”

— Mother Teresa

379. “Look at the cross and you will know what one soul means to Jesus.”

— Mother Teresa

380. “To choose always the hardest.”

— Mother Teresa

381. “There is a famine in America. Not a famine of food, but of love, of truth, of life.”

— Mother Teresa

382. “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

383. “I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody, to be just nobody.”

— Mother Teresa

384. “My secret is a very simple one: I pray. To pray to Christ is to love him.”

— Mother Teresa

385. “Without our suffering, our work would simply be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the Redemption.”

— Mother Teresa

386. “To be pure, to remain pure, can only come at a price, the price of knowing God and loving him enough to do his will. He will always give us the strength we need to keep purity as something as beautiful for him.”

— Mother Teresa

387. “The Cross will be for us as it was for Christ: proof of the greatest love.”

— Mother Teresa

388. “Let us be very sincere in our dealings with each other, and have the courage to accept each other as we are. Do not be surprised or become preoccupied at each other’s failures – rather, see and find in each other the good, for each one of us is created in the image of God.”

— Mother Teresa

389. “Love is repaid by love alone!”

— Mother Teresa

390. “You should never lose heart. God is merciful and kind- he has endowed you with the best gift- smile, which can make millions happy.”

— Mother Teresa

391. “Holiness is not the luxury of a few people, but a simple duty for you and me.”

— Mother Teresa

392. “From the moment a soul has the grace to know God, she must seek.”

— Mother Teresa

393. “Holiness is doing God’s will with a smile.”

— Mother Teresa

394. “And if we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”

— Mother Teresa

395. “I don’t think there is anyone who needs God’s help as much as I do. Sometimes I feel so helpless and weak. I think that is why God uses me. Because I cannot depend on my own strength, I rely on Him twenty-four hours a day.”

— Mother Teresa

396. “If I’d never have picked up the first person, I’d never have picked up the 42,000 in Calcutta.”

— Mother Teresa

397. “Gandhi felt fascinated at knowing Christ. He met Christians, and felt let down.”

— Mother Teresa

398. “To be able to proclaim the Good News to the poor we must know what is poverty.”

— Mother Teresa

399. “At the hour of death when we come face-to-face with God, we are going to be judged on love; not how much we have done, but how much love we put into the doing.”

— Mother Teresa

400. “Am I ever angry or frustrated? I only feel angry sometimes when I see waste, when things that we waste are what people need, things that would save them from dying. Frustrated? No, never.”

— Mother Teresa