It’s not what you have in life that matters, but who you share your life with. The people who lift you up, push you forward, celebrate your successes, and love you through every bump in the road… that’s family.

These are the kind of people who teach you how to love: yourself, and each other.

Read these family quotes to celebrate the people you call family, whether through blood or pure love (or both).

40 Family Quotes for Everyone You Call Family

1. “When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.” – Joyce Brothers

2. “Our family is like the branches of a tree. We may grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.” – Unknown

3. “Family life contributes immensely to an individual’s happiness. Only in a happy home life can complete contentment be found.” – Dorothea S. Koppliln

4. “Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.” – Anthony Brandt

5. “A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another.” – Buddha

6. “If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable — each segment distinct.” – Letty Cottin Pogrebin

7. “What greater blessing to give thanks for at a family gathering than the family and the gathering.” – Robert Brault

8. “The family is one of nature's masterpieces.” – George Santayana

9. “We must take care of our families wherever we find them.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

10. “Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.” – Mitch Albom

11. “In the family, happiness is in the ratio in which each is serving the others, seeking one another’s good, and bearing one another’s burdens.” – Henry Ward Beecher

12. “What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life – to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.” – George Eliot

11. “A family is a little world created by love.” – Unknown

14. “A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss… That’s the trade-off. But I’ll take it all.” – Brad Pitt

15. “This is part of what a family is about, not just love. It’s knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work.” – Mitch Albom

16. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” – Angela Schwindt

17. “A man should never neglect his family for business.” – Walt Disney

18. “When you wrap your child warmly every day with layers of your unconditional, healthy love before you send him out into the world, he will rarely feel the cold chill that often comes with life’s changing seasons.” – Shadonna Richards

19. “It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.” – Johann Schiller

20. “Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.” – Jim Rohn

21. “I sustain myself with the love of family.” – Maya Angelou

22. “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching – they are your family. ” – Jim Butcher

23. “There is no such thing as a perfect family. Behind every door there are issues, the difference is accepting and encouraging each family member as they are not as we would like them to be.” – Catherine Pulsifer

24. “You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.” – Frederick Buechner

25. “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” – John Bowring

26. “The secret of a happy home is that members of the family learn to give and receive love.” – Billy Graham

27. “Family is the most important thing in the world.” – Princess Diana

28. “The family – that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.” – Dodie Smith

29. “At the end of the day, a loving family should find everything forgivable.” – Mark V. Olsen

30. “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” – Jane Howard

31. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.” – Richard Bach

32. “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa

33. “Family is not an important thing, it’s everything.” – Michael J. Fox

34. “Is this what family is like: the feeling that everyone’s connected, that with one piece missing, the whole thing’s broken?” – Trenton Lee Stewart

35. “Love makes a family.” – Gigi Kaeser

36. “The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.” – Charles Kuralt

35. “Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” – David Ogden Stiers

38. “It doesn’t matter what story we’re telling, we’re telling the story of family.” – Erica Lorraine Scheidt

39. “That’s what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you’re not so lovable.” – Deb Caletti

40. “Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” – Brad Henry

. . .

Tell me:

Which of these family quotes is your favorite?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I’d love to know!

Love,

Jen

P.S. Want to celebrate someone in your circle? Find a new favorite word art print to gift them, so they never forget how loved they are. They'll love it.