Top 500 Mother Teresa Quotes (2026 Update)
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351. “If you are joyful, do not worry about lukewarmness. Joy will shine in your eyes and in your look, in your conversation and in your countenance. You will not be able to hide it because joy overflows.”

— Mother Teresa

352. “You have to be holy in your position as you are, and I have to be holy in the position that God has put me. So it is nothing extraordinary to be holy. Holiness is not the luxury of the few. Holiness is a simple duty for you and for me. We have been created for that.”

— Mother Teresa

353. “The fullness of our heart is expressed in our eyes, our touch, in what we write and say, in the way we walk and the way we receive and in the way we serve.”

— Mother Teresa

354. “Prayer makes your heart bigger, until it is capable of containing the gift of God himself. Prayer begets faith, faith begets love, and love begets service on behalf of the poor.”

— Mother Teresa

355. “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

356. “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

357. “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

358. “Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.”

— Mother Teresa

359. “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

360. “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

361. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

363. “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

364. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

366. “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

367. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

369. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

372. “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

373. “The time we spend in having our daily audience with God is the most precious part of the whole day.”

— Mother Teresa

374. “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

375. “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

376. “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

377. “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

Featured in: Book Quotes

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

— Mother Teresa

379. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

381. “Everything starts from prayer. Without asking God for love, we cannot possess love and still less are we able to give it to others. Just as people today are speaking so much about the poor but they do not know or talk to the poor, we too cannot talk so much about prayer and yet not know how to pray.”

— Mother Teresa

382. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

385. “To choose always the hardest.”

— Mother Teresa

386. “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

387. “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

388. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

390. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

392. “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

393. “Love is repaid by love alone!”

— Mother Teresa

394. “I realized that I had the call to take care of the sick and the dying, the hungry, the naked, the homeless – to be God’s Love in action to the poorest of the poor. That was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity.”

— Mother Teresa

395. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

399. “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

400. “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