Top 882 Quotes & Sayings by Mother Teresa

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.

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

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.

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.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

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

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

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Peace begins with a smile.

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.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

Intense love does not measure, it just gives.

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

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.

The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.

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

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.

Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given.

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.

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

There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.

The beginning of prayer is silence. If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence, to be able to hear God we need a clean heart; for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God; and then only from the fullness of our heart can we speak to God. But we cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made that connection with God in the silence of our heart.

If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.

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

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

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

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

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

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

At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.

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

Your true character Is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do 'Nothing' for you

There is no key to happiness; the door is always open

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

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want.

There is much suffering in the world - physical, material, mental. The suffering of some can be blamed on the greed of others. The material and physical suffering is suffering from hunger, from homelessness, from all kinds of diseases. But the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, having no one. I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.

No matter how tired you are, no matter how physically exhausting this work may be, it's beautiful to bring a smile into someone's life, to care for someone in need. What greater joy can there be?

Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.

Small things done with great love will change the world.

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

I don't do great things. I do small things with great love.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank people will try to cheat you: Be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight: Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous of you: Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten by tomorrow: Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway.

We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, killings, of wars, or of hatred...If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other?

Speak tenderly; let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.