Top 500 Mother Teresa Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “If I’d never have picked up the first person, I’d never have picked up the 42,000 in Calcutta.”

— Mother Teresa

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

402. “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

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

— Mother Teresa

404. “We must remember that life begins at home and we must also remember that the future of humanity passes through the family.”

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

406. “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

407. “We must become holy, not because we want to feel holy, but because Christ must be able to live his life fully in us.”

— Mother Teresa

408. “People are generally irrational, unreasonable and selfish. They deserve to be loved, anyway.”

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

410. “The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.”

— Mother Teresa

411. “Put yourself completely under the influence of Jesus, so that he may think his thoughts in your mind, do his work through your hands, for you will be all-powerful with him to strengthen you.”

— Mother Teresa

412. “We are not here to be successful, we are here to be FAITHFUL.”

— Mother Teresa

413. “My mother and sister must be very happy to be home with God, and I am sure their love and prayers are always with me. When I go home to God, for death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.”

— Mother Teresa

414. “Why can’t there be love that never gets tired?”

— Mother Teresa

415. “The purpose of guilt is to bring us to the Lord, after that it has no purpose.”

— Mother Teresa

416. “God is never late, but rarely early.”

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

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

— Mother Teresa

419. “If faith is lacking, it is because there is too much selfishness, too much concern for personal gain. For faith to be true, it has to be generous and loving. Love and faith go together, they complete each other.”

— Mother Teresa

420. “Be humble and you will never be disturbed. It is very difficult in practice because we all want to see the result of our work. Leave it to Jesus.”

— Mother Teresa

421. “The highest form of worship is to find the least among you and treat them like Jesus.”

— Mother Teresa

422. “The poorest of the poor are those who feel that they are unloved.”

— Mother Teresa

423. “Every adult was once a child free from prejudice.”

— Mother Teresa

424. “It is more difficult to fight poverty in a rich country than in a poor one.”

— Mother Teresa

Featured in: Country Quotes

425. “Love: A fruit always in season.”

— Mother Teresa

426. “My prayer for you is that you come to understand and have the courage to answer Jesus’ call to you with the simple word ‘yes’.”

— Mother Teresa

427. “All of us must be saints in this world. Holiness is a duty for you and me. So let’s be saints and so give glory to the Father.”

— Mother Teresa

428. “We must never get into the habit of being preoccupied with the future. There is no reason to do so. God is there.”

— Mother Teresa

429. “When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now.”

— Mother Teresa

430. “We must pray to Jesus to give us that tenderness of the Eucharist.”

— Mother Teresa

431. “Holy Angels, our advocates, our brothers, our counselors, our defenders, our enlighteners, our friends, our guides, our helpers, our intercessors – Pray for us.”

— Mother Teresa

432. “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

433. “I feel called to help individuals, to love each human being. I never think in terms of crowds in general but in terms of persons. Were I to think about crowds, I would never begin anything.”

— Mother Teresa

434. “Do we know our poor people? Do we know the poor in our house, in our family? Perhaps they are not hungry for a piece of bread. Perhaps our children, husband, wife, are not hungry, or naked, or dispossessed, but are you sure there is no one there who feels unwanted, deprived of affection?”

— Mother Teresa

435. “Each time people come into contact with us, they must become different and better people because of having met us. We must radiate God’s love.”

— Mother Teresa

436. “Do not look for Jesus away from yourselves. He is not out there; He is in you. Keep your lamp burning, and you will recognize him.”

— Mother Teresa

437. “I have the feeling that we are in such a hurry that we do not have time to look at one another and smile.”

— Mother Teresa

438. “If you are looking for vocations, as a community have adoration every day. Once the Missionaries of Charity started daily adoration, their vocations doubled.”

— Mother Teresa

439. “Love should be as natural as living and breathing.”

— Mother Teresa

440. “Sometimes it is harder for us to smile at those who live with us, the immediate members of our families, than it is to smile at those who are not so close to us. Let us never forget: love begins at home.”

— Mother Teresa

441. “You can’t do God’s work without suffering.”

— Mother Teresa

442. “We complicate prayer as we complicate many things. It is to love Jesus with undivided love-for you, for me, for all of us. And that undivided love is put into action when we do as Jesus said, love as I have loved you.”

— Mother Teresa

443. “It is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully.”

— Mother Teresa

444. “It was easier to deal with poverty and death in India that the lack of spirituality in America.”

— Mother Teresa

445. “Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that’s real hunger.”

— Mother Teresa

Featured in: Real Quotes

446. “Prayer is in all things, in all gestures.”

— Mother Teresa

447. “If we are Christians, we must look like Christ – this is my deep conviction.”

— Mother Teresa

448. “Each of us is merely a small instrument; all of us, after accomplishing our mission, will disappear.”

— Mother Teresa

449. “Even when the urgent is good, the good can keep you from your best, keep you from your unique contribution, if you let it.”

— Mother Teresa

450. “If you pray more you will pray better.”

— Mother Teresa