MOTHER TERESA QUOTES

When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Prize, she was asked, ?What can we do to promote world peace? She answered - Go home and love your family.?

When a poor person dies of hunger it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.
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.

The fullness of our heart is expressed in our eyes, in our touch, in what we write, in what we say, in the way we walk, the way we receive, the way we need. That is the fullness of our heart expressing itself in many different ways.

Let's concentrate on a worthwhile goal: that no child be unwanted, that no person go unloved. And let's not stop smiling at whomever we meet, especially when it's hard to smile.

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.

Service means an unceasing and wholehearted labor in making ourselves available so that He may live, in and through us, His life of infinitely tender, compassionate and merciful love, for the spiritually and materially poorest of the poor.
We are to be all love, all faith, all purity for the sake of the poor we serve.
The poor are our brothers and sisters... They are the people in the world who need love, who need care, who have to be wanted.
Speak tenderly to them. 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.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.
Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science, or eloquence.

Peace begins with a smile.
If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
If we really want to love, we must learn to forgive before anything else.
Pause and ponder. Think before you act. Be patient. Forgive and forget. Love one and all.
Whenever you share love with others, you'll notice the peace that comes to you and to them.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
Intense love does not measure, it just gives.
Spread love everywhere you go. 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.

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.
Listen in silence, because if your heart is full of other things you cannot hear the voice of God.
God speaks in the silence of the heart, and we listen. And then we speak to God from the fullness of our heart, and God listens. And this listening and this speaking is what prayer is meant to be: oneness with God.
Love Him trustfully, without looking back and without fear. Give yourself fully --He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your weakness.

Our poor people are great people, a very lovable people, They don't need our pity and sympathy. They need our understanding love and they need our respect. We need to tell the poor that they are somebody to us that they, too, have been created, by the same loving hand of God, to love and be loved.
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.

Spiritual people are not perfect people, They are only imperfect people who have put the Lord first.
What is our spiritual life? A love union in which the divine and the human give themselves completely to one another.
If I ever become a Saint ? I surely be one of "darkness". I will continually be absent from Heaven - to lit the light of those in darkness on earth.
We must have a real living determination to reach holiness. "I will be a saint" means I will despoil myself of all that is not God; I will strip my heart of all created things; I will live in poverty and detachment; I will renounce my will, my inclinations, my whims and fancies, and make myself a willing slave to the will of God.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
There is a tremendous strength that is growing in the world through... sharing together, praying together, suffering together and working together.

The greatest science in the world, in heaven and on earth, is love.
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.
Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.
I believe we must look for holiness, joy, and love in our own homes.

I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people.
Poverty comes into our homes to give us the chance to love. Here is where love finds its place. Are we there, open and willing to offer support and affection?
Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet especially your family. Be holy? let us pray.

There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.
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.
What is important is that we are able to smile at one another in our families. With a generous and cheerful smile, we should be able to accept everything that happens, both the joyful things and the sad things.
Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family.

Let everyone sweep in front of his door and the whole world will be clean.
There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.

When you don't have anything, then you have everything.
When you have nothing left but God, you have more than enough to start over again.
With God, nothing is impossible.

Why can't there be love that never gets tired?
Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.
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.
In loving one another through our works we bring an increase of grace and a growth in divine love.

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
It takes humility to recognize the greatness of God shining through us.
We learn humility through accepting humiliations cheerfully.
Each one of us is what he is in the eyes of God.
We must all work together. We are all one in this unity.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
Small things, done in great love, bring joy and peace.
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.
What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things.

Somebody loves us, too - God Himself. We have been created to love and to be loved.
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.

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?
Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other-that man, that woman, that child is my brother or my sister. If everyone could see the image of God in his neighbor, do you think we would still need tanks and generals?

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.
Success will win you false friends and true enemies - succeed anyway.

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.
The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.

It is impossible to walk rapidly and be unhappy.
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
One filled with joy preaches without preaching.
I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy, I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.

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.
Every creative act of ours in relation to other people -- an act of love, of pity, of help, of peacemaking -- not merely has a future but is eternal.
The good God has given Himself to us? Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say to you, rejoice.

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.
God is in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?
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.

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
The most significant ailment in the world today is "spiritual deprivation."

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.

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of having selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will gain false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten by tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and bluntness make you vulnerable. Be honest and blunt anyway. What you spend years building can be destroyed overnight. Build it anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Even if you live your life, you will die someday. Live your life anyway. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in his love than in your weakness.
If we accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, rather, to use violence to get what they want.
Give that child to me. I want it. I will care for it. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.
The joy of the Lord is our strength.
The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.
True holiness consists in doing God's will with a smile.

All of us must cling to God through prayer and sacrifice.
From now on you must pray for your people and yourself three times a day.
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.
If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.
The Simple Path: Silence is Prayer. Prayer is Faith. Faith is Love. Love is Service. The Fruit of Service is Peace.

I find the rich much poorer- sometimes they are more lonely inside.
Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.

If you give what you do not need, it is not giving.
We have to give until it hurts. We need to give from the resources we would like to keep for ourselves. We need to give to the point of sacrificing. We must give something that we find hard to give up.
Everything that is not given is lost.
A life not lived for others is not a life.

Never be so busy as not to think of others.
One must really have suffered oneself to help others.
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
The true way and the sure way to friendship is being open to each other, accepting each other just as we are, knowing each other.

Let's not pray long, drawn-out prayers, but let's pray short ones full of love.
Prayer, to be fruitful, must come from the heart.
Prayer unites us. Simply open your hearts to Him. Also, simply accept what He sends you. With a big smile, generously give Him what He asks of you. God will do the rest, never fear.

What greater love is there than God's love for each one of us? His love isn't a fantasy. It is real.
I am for God and God for me. I live for God and give up my own self, and in this way God lives for me.

I just take one day. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come; We have only today, 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.

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 may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway… You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.

I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.
Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.
I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.

How wonderful it is to think that we have all been created for a purpose! We have not come into the world to be a number; we have been created for a purpose, for great things: to love and be loved.
I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, 'How many good things have you done in your life?' rather he will ask, 'How much love did you put into what you did?
I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.

The best day - today.
Biggest obstacle - fear.
Easiest thing - to fool.
Biggest misconception - that another is guilty of failure you.
Most difficult - to achieve your dreams.
Most unattainable - to please everyone.
Most stupid thing - justification.
Biggest mistake - you fall spirit.
Biggest defeat - to surrender without a fight.
Root of all evil - selfishness.
Best Entertainment - work.
Most useful thing - experience.
Most useless thing - laziness.
Worst defeat - despair.
Most needed - the hearth.
Most faithful friends - parents.
Biggest donors - the teachers.
Best teachers - children.
Your biggest enemy - you yourself.
Most dangerous man - a hypocrite.
Worst Wizard - anger.
Most treacherous feelings - hatred and envy.
Greatest happiness - to be useful to others.
Biggest success - to eradicate its shortcomings.
Most unpleasant drawback - bad mood.
What you cannot escape - the problems.
Most essential - communication.
Shortest path - right.
Longest time - to bring foreign brains.
Most beautiful gift - forgiveness.
Most best defense - smile.
Most pleasant feeling - inner peace.
Greatest pleasure - their duty.
Biggest disappointment - betrayal.
Most depersonalization - imitation.
Nobody can take you: education, experience and memories.
Most important thing you carry with you - mind.
Best medicine - optimism.
Most powerful force in the world - faith.
Most stimulating gift - hope.
Reality only - love.

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.

Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely right where you are and in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools.
Hungry for love, He looks at you. Thirsty for kindness, He begs of you. Naked for loyalty, He hopes in you. Homeless for shelter in your heart, He asks of you. Will you be that one to Him?

We draw the circle of our family too small.
If I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at one, I will.
I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time - just one, one, one. So you begin. I began - I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand....The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community. Just begin - one, one, one.

I perceive the infinite greatness that we can tap into. I see how he can work through us. Because you and I have nothing on our own we need him. As the Bible says, God waits and looks. Will we respond?

May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Love, tenderness, and compassion are real justice. Justice without love is not justice. Love without justice is not love.
The most important medicine is tender love and care.
It is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully.

Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other's faults and failures.

If you cannot love the person whom you see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.
The more we empty ourselves, the more room we give God to fill us.
Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter into heaven. And what is being a little child? It is having a clean heart, a pure heart.
Try to be more in tune with God and more open to Him, so that you will be able to see His face.
The whole of our life must come to that one word "yes." Yes to God: that is holiness. We allow God to take from us whatever He wants and we accept whatever He gives with joy. That is yes in action.

These are the few ways we can practice humility: To speak as little as possible of one's self. To mind one's own business. Not to want to manage other people's affairs. To avoid curiosity. To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully. To pass over the mistakes of others. To accept insults and injuries. To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked. To be kind and gentle even under provocation. Never to stand on one's dignity. To choose always the hardest.