110 Mother Teresa Quotes on Compassion and Kindness

If you’ve ever wondered what motivated this compassionate woman to perform such selfless acts, these Mother Teresa quotes are for you.

It’s fascinating to think about how Mother Teresa dedicated her entire life to serving and improving the lives of others through her kind words. She touched millions worldwide through her messages and acts of love. Even years after her death, her big heart continues to inspire us to do the same, especially for the less fortunate.

Remember, you don’t need a lot of money to help others because your simple acts of love for those around you can make a difference.

Best Mother Teresa Quotes

Here are some of her best quotes to guide you toward a more fulfilling and happy life through giving, service, and charity.

Check out the complete list here.

Best Mother Teresa Quotes

1. “People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

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

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

4. “Peace begins with a smile.”

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

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

7. “I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.”

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

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

Inspirational Mother Teresa Quotes

10. “When you don’t have anything, then you have everything.”

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

12. “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.”

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

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

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

16. “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.”

Profound Mother Teresa Quotes on Love

17. “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.”

18. “Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”

19. “If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.”

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

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

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

23. “Love can not remain by itself—it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.”

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

25. “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.”

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

27. “Whenever you share love with others, you’ll notice the peace that comes to you and to them.”

28. “Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light a new light in the hearts of people.”

Also read: True Love Quotes

Meaningful Mother Teresa Quotes That Will Make You Think

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

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

31. “Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”

32. “Live simply so others may simply live.”

33. “‎Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

34. “I fear just one thing: money! Greed was what motivated Judas to sell Jesus.”

35. “Sometimes a good feeling from inside is worth much more than a beautician.”

36. “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.”

37. “I want you to be concerned about your next-door neighbor. Do you know your next-door neighbor?”

38. “I think that before people were speaking much about the poor, but now more and more people are speaking to the poor. That is the great difference.”

Mother Teresa Quotes on Service

39. “The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we give to others.”

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

41. “Good works are links that form a chain of love.”

42. “The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action.”

43. “It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.”

44. “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.”

Mother Teresa Quotes on Kindness

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

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

47. “Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”

48. “One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.”

Wise Mother Teresa Quotes About Family

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

50. “Love begins by taking care of the closest ones—the ones at home.”

51. “We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly.”

52. “The openness of our hearts and minds can be measured by how wide we draw the circle of what we call family.”

53. “It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”

54. “Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.”

Also read: Family Quotes, Cousin Quotes

Insightful Mother Teresa Quotes That Will Encourage You to Give

55. “Give, but give until it hurts.”

56. “We cannot give what we have not got.”

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

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

59. “The less we have, the more we give. Seems absurd, but it’s the logic of love.”

60. “A way of satisfying our brethrens’ hunger is to share with them whatever we have—to share with them until we ourselves feel what they feel.”

61. “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.”

Also read: Encouraging Quotes

Mother Teresa Quotes About Charity and Helping Others

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

63. “It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.”

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

65. “If we worry too much about ourselves, we won’t have time for others.”

66. “Do not worry about why problems exist in the world—just respond to people’s needs.”

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

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

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

70. “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.”

71. “Love is not patronizing and charity isn’t about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same—with charity you give love, so don’t just give money but reach out your hand instead.”

72. “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.”

73. “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.”

74. “I see somebody dying, I pick him up. I find somebody hungry, I give him food. He can love and be loved. I don’t look at his color, I don’t look at his religion. I don’t look at anything. Every person whether he is Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist, he is my brother, my sister.”

Mother Teresa Quotes on the Power of a Smile

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

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

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

78. “Keep the corners of your mouth turned up. Speak in a low, persuasive tone. Listen; be teachable. Laugh at good stories and learn to tell them. For as long as you are green, you can grow.”

Also read: Smile Quotes

Mother Teresa Quotes That Will Help You Live a Better Life

79. “Some people come into our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.”

80. “At the moment of death we will not be judged according to the number of good deeds we have done or by the diplomas we have received in our lifetime. We will be judged according to the love we have put into our work.”

81. “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.”

Also read: Quotes to Live By

Mother Teresa Quotes for a Joyful and Happy Life

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

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

84. “Profound joy of the heart is like a magnet that indicates the path of life.”

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

86. “One filled with the joy preaches without preaching.”

87. “Nothing makes you happier than when you really reach out in mercy to someone who is badly hurt.”

Also read: Happiness Quotes, Positive Quotes

Mother Teresa Quotes That Prove Her Unwavering Faith in God

88. “I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.”

89. “You can love all men perfectly if you love the one God in them all.”

90. “God is everywhere and in everything and without Him we cannot exist.”

91. “I believe God loves the world through us—through you and me.”

92. “You will never truly realize God is all you need until He becomes all you have.”

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

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

95. “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.”

96. “It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself.”

97. “Spread the love of God through your life but only use words when necessary.”

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

99. “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”

100. “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.”

101. “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.”

Mother Teresa Quotes to Promote World Peace

102. “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”

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

104. “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.”

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

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

107. “Please choose the way of peace. In the short term, there may be winners and losers in this war that we all dread. But that never can, or never will justify the suffering, pain, and loss of life your weapons will cause.”

More Mother Teresa Quotes to Ponder On

108. “We are not called to be successful, but faithful.”

109. “The greatest mistake is to think you are too strong to fall into temptation. Put your finger in the fire and it will burn. So we have to go through the fire.”

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

Do You Aspire to Live a Life Like Mother Teresa’s?

Mother Teresa was a nun who rose to prominence as a symbol of compassion and service to the poor. She founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, whose primary mission was to love and care for those who had no one else to turn to.

Indeed, her presence in this world was a gift. She was an inspiration who dedicated her life to helping those in need. With her kind words, we’re able to see that there’s still good left in this world.

Sharing these quotes to make another’s day brighter is one step toward living a life like Mother Teresa’s. Let these quotes guide you and move you to spread love, peace, and compassion everywhere you go.

Which of these Mother Teresa quotes is your favorite? Do you have any more quotes from her you’d like to share? Please, help us inspire others by leaving a comment below.

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.

3 thoughts on “110 Mother Teresa Quotes on Compassion and Kindness”

  1. Hi, nice to meet you.!
    Many thanks for your share to the public community.
    I really loved most of Mother Teresa slogans/quotes. Cause they made me stronger and more mature in living.
    Hope that get more and more sharing from you, if available for. Thanks indeed./.

  2. Thanks, Amy, for posting Mother Teresa’s quotes. I was looking for the one numbered 102 for a long time and had been unable to find it, but thanks to you I now have it. Many thanks!!!

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