Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, or most commonly recognized as Mother Teresa, was and will continue to be an inspiration and an icon of selflessness to millions of people, for her lifelong commitment to giving “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.” She always placed common humanity over any religious divisions.

Her selfless actions and humble character made her a global symbol of charitable work, and the love and kindness she bestowed upon the poverty-stricken individuals of all faiths gained her a Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1979.

Though some of her views were deemed controversial by some people, no one can deny the influence and power of her words and actions. In 2016, Mother Teresa was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

Here are the top 33 quotes and sayings by Mother Teresa that will surely inspire you to appreciate life and find beauty all around you.

Table of Contents

  • Mother Teresa Quotes About Love
  • Mother Teresa Quotes About God
  • Mother Teresa Quotes About Service
  • Mother Teresa, More Quotes And Sayings

Mother Teresa Quotes About Love

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

2. “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.”

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

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

Quotes from mother teresa about serving others
Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

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

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

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

Quotes from mother teresa about serving others
Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

8. “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.”

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

10. “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.”

Mother Teresa Quotes About God

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

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

Quotes from mother teresa about serving others
Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

3. “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.”

4. “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.”

5. “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.”

6. “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.”

Related: Most Inspirational God Quotes (On Courage, Love, Life, Faith…)

Mother Teresa Quotes About Service

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

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

Quotes from mother teresa about serving others
Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

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

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

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

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

Quotes from mother teresa about serving others
Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

7. “Loneliness is the most terrible poverty.”

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

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

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

Mother Teresa, More Quotes And Sayings

1. “Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.”

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

Quotes from mother teresa about serving others
Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

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

4. “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.”

5. “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.”

6. “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” 

Quotes from mother teresa about serving others
Quotes from mother teresa about serving others

7. “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.”

What did Mother Teresa say about serving?

One of Mother Teresa's most recognized prayers came to be known as her “business card:” “The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace.” Many view these words as the secret to her success in ministry and care for the ...

What is Mother Teresa's most famous quote?

1. “If I ever become a Saint–I will surely be one of 'darkness. ' I will continually be absent from Heaven–to light the light of those in darkness on earth,” she said, according to Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, whose author described it as her “mission statement.”

What did Mother Teresa say about kindness?

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.

What did Mother Teresa teach us about respect for others?

She taught by example that when we help and love a poor person we are helping and loving Jesus. God is not absent from our lives. He lives in our neighbor, most especially in those we tend to neglect and dislike. The bottom line for Mother Teresa was that she had the utmost respect for the basic dignity of each person.