Mother Teresa was an inspiration to countless millions for her lifelong devotion to the neediest and most vulnerable of the world. The selflessness and sacrifice with which she lived her own life made her an international symbol of charitable work, and the love and compassion she showed the destitute of all faiths won her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, which she donated entirely to the poor.

Mother Teresa found her inspiration in Catholic teachings, but won widespread affection and admiration in her adopted home of Calcutta, India by respecting local customs and beliefs, and always placing our common humanity above religious divisions. By 2013, the charitable organization she had set up, the Missionaries of Charity, had spread to 700 missions in 130 countries, providing soup kitchens, centers for family assistance, orphanages, schools, hospitals and homes for people with diseases such as leprosy, AIDS and tuberculosis.

In 2016, Mother Teresa was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Teresa.

Here are 20 Mother Teresa quotes that will inspire you to be a better person

While these may not be traditional quotes about love, many famous sayings of Mother Teresa show how important love is, and why a devotion to the poor is a kind and necessary act.

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

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

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.

Intense love does not measure, it just gives.

Mother Teresa quotes - Intense love does not measure. It just gives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.

The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.

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

mother teresa quotes - If you judge people, you have no time to love them

What can you do to promote world peace? 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.

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

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?

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

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

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

Joy is a net of love in which you can catch souls.

Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly.

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

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

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

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