“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
“What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway.”
―
Mother Teresa
“Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.”
―
Mother Teresa
“If you judge people you have no time to love them.”
―
Mother Teresa
“I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is 'Abortion', because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, 'Murder' by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love... And we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts...”
―
Mother Teresa
“We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God, together as a community as well as personally; to be alone with Him — not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything — to dwell lovingly in His presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless. We cannot find God in noise or agitation.”
―
Mother Teresa
“Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.”
―
Mother Teresa
“Smile at each other. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other- it doesn't matter who it is- and that will help to grow up in greater love for each other.”
―
Mother Teresa
“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
―
Mother Teresa
“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.”
―
Mother Teresa
“Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. It is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.”
―
Mother Teresa
“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”
―
Mother Teresa
“If you are discouraged, it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers.”
―
Mother Teresa
“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
―
Mother Teresa
“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.”
―
Mother Teresa
