Mother Teresa

1910–1997 · Catholic nun & founder of the Missionaries of Charity

Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje on 26 August 1910, she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950 and spent nearly half a century running homes for the dying, the abandoned and the sick. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, died on 5 September 1997, and was canonised by the Catholic Church on 4 September 2016. Her characteristic teaching was exactly this one — that scale is the wrong measure of a good act — which is why so many differently-worded versions of it circulate under her name.

Traced to source

5 quotes we’ve traced to Mother Teresa

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

Verified

“Don't look for big things, just do small things with great love. The smaller the thing, the greater must be our love”

Attributed

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

Attributed

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

Disputed

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

Disputed

Not actually Mother Teresa

Often misattributed to Mother Teresa

Famous lines widely pinned on Mother Teresa that we’ve traced to someone else.

“In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway”

actually Kent M. Keith (poem) — the coda itself is anonymous

“People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway”

actually Kent M. Keith

Did they really say it?

Thought Mother Teresa said something else?

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