Family Quotes To Live By

with my daughters and their children (2016)

The family quotes on this page are all positive, inspirational words of love and wisdom from known sources that celebrate the joys of family life. Words from unknown origins are on the Family Sayings page.

The other pages relevant to family are: Baby Quotes & SayingsChildren Quotes & SayingsFather Quotes & SayingsGrandmother Quotes & SayingsMother Quotes & SayingsParent Quotes & Sayings.

I was brought up with a strong belief in the family being the most important thing in life. I was taught by example, that your family will always love you no matter what, and that a loving, supportive, caring, positive upbringing will produce the same qualities in adults. When I see what a wonderful job my children are doing in bringing up their own children, I can appreciate that I had a part in passing on the ‘family values’ that I was blessed with as a child.

Family quotes are listed alphabetically on surnames.


Family Quotes:  A   


Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom  1958
Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.

Louise May Alcott

Louise May Alcott  1832 – 1888
A house needs a Grandma in it.

Jane Austen

Jane Austen  1775 – 1817
There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  B   


Aine Belton

Aine Belton
One hug always equals two…  One for them and one for you.

Bo Bennett

Bo Bennett  1972
Spend some time this weekend on home-improvement…  Improve your attitude toward your family.

Rachel Billington

Rachel Billington  1942
The daughter never ever gives up on the mother, just as the mother never gives up on the daughter. There is a tie there so strong that nothing can break it.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte  1769 – 1821
Show me a family of readers… and I will show you the people who move the world.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

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

Robert Brault

Robert Brault
Family life’s a bit like a runny peach pie – not perfect, but who’s complaining?


The advantage of growing up with siblings is that you become very good at fractions.


What greater blessing to give thanks for at a family gathering, than the family and the gathering.

Joyce Brothers

Joyce Brothers  1927 – 2013
When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.

Joyce Brothers quote: When you look at your life the greatest happinesses are family happinesses. -  Spiritual Quotes To Live ByFamily fun in the snow
Pam Brown

Pam Brown  1948
An older sister is a friend and defender – a listener, conspirator, a counsellor and sharer of delights, and sorrows too.


However time or circumstances may come between mother and her child, their lives are interwoven forever.


It’s hard to be responsible, adult and sensible all the time. How good it is to have a sister whose heart is as young as your own.


Mothers are the pivot on which the family spins.
Mothers are the pivot on which the world spins.


Sisters share the scent and smells.. the feel of a common childhood.


We shared: parents, home, pets, celebrations, catastrophes, secrets. And the threads of our experience became so interwoven that we are linked. I can never be utterly lonely, knowing you share the planet.


When sisters stand shoulder to shoulder, who stands a chance against us?

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Gail Lumet Buckley  1937
Family faces are magic mirrors… looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future.

Eva Burrows

Eva Burrows  1929
In family life, love is…  the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.

Illustrated by Sandra Reeves
Lorna Byrne

Lorna Byrne  1953
The bonding with a new baby can help people to release love unconsciously.


The connection between brothers and sisters is completely different to that between friends and it exists throughout our lives, even if we have little contact.


The sadness and pain surrounding the death of a parent, brother or sister can bring with it an unexpected gift, and help families to become closer. It can help bring shared memories to light, and be a reminder of love that was shared in the past.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  C   


Mary Calderone

Mary Calderone  1904 – 1998
Our children are not going to be just ‘our children’ – they are going to be other people’s husbands and wives and the parents of our grandchildren.

My children when younger and more recently with their partners & children
Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Nancy J. Carmody
I am thankful for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because I have a home.  I am thankful for the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.

Gilbert Chesterton

Gilbert Chesterton  1874 – 1936
The most extraordinary thing in the world is… an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

Julia Child

Julia Child  1912 – 2004
Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.

Lydia Maria Child

Lydia Maria Child  1802 – 1880
Home – that blessed word, which opens to the human heart the most perfect glimpse of Heaven, and helps to carry it thither, as on an Angel’s wings.

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra  1946
Success, wealth, good health and nurturing relationships are by-products of happiness, not the cause.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Sera Christann
Sometimes our hearts get tangled and our Souls a little off kilter. Friends and family can set us right and help guide us back to the light.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill  1874 – 1965
There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.

Confucius

Confucius  551BC – 479BC
The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis  1958
There is a point when you aren’t as much mom and daughter as you are adults and friends.

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus  1992
The only people that you really have, that I learned, are your family, because they love you no matter what.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  D   


David DeNotaris
My family provided me with the proper information and inspiration for me to overcome the challenge of blindness.

Sarah Dessen  1970
Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static or set. People marry in, divorce out. They’re born, they die. It’s always evolving, turning into something else.

Anita Diamant

Anita Diamant  1951
The more a daughter knows the details of her mother’s life, the stronger the daughter.

Princess Diana

Princess Diana  1961 – 1997
Family is the most important thing in the world.

Family is the most important thing in the world - Princess Diana - Spiritual Quotes To Live ByHarvey Family (oldest girl is my maternal grandmother) – London early 1920’s
Walt Disney

Walt Disney  1901 – 1966
A man should never neglect his family for business.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Pamela Dugdale
Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring.

Will Durant

Will Durant  1885 – 1981
The family is the nucleus of civilization.

Amy, Mark, Julie & Sophie with newborn Lowen (2015)
Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer  1940 – 2015
Without exception, begin every day of your life with gratitude. As you look in the mirror, say, “Thank you, God, for life, for my body, for my family and loved ones, for this day, and for the opportunity to be of service. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  E   


Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein  1879 – 1955
Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.

Emma & children
George Eliot

George Eliot  1819 – 1880
What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?

T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot  1888 – 1965
There’s no vocabulary for love within a family, love that’s lived in but not looked at, love within he light of which all else is seen, the love within which all other love finds speech. This love is silent.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  F   


Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox  1961
Family is not an important thing… it is everything.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  G   


Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Susan Gale
Mothers are like glue… even when you can’t see them, they’re still holding the family together.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Richard Garnett
Love is the greatest gift that one generation can leave to another.

illustration by Sandra Reeves
Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Marion C. Garretty  1917
A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.

Ruldolph Giuliani

Ruldolph Giuliani  1944
What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humour, comfort, lessons in life.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  H   


Alex Haley

Alex Haley  1921 – 1992
In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past and a bridge to our future.

Alex Haley quote: In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past and a bridge to our future. - Spiritual Quotes To Live ByMy parents with their descendants in 2008 at their Golden Wedding party.
Alex Haley

Alex Haley  1921 – 1992
My fondest hope is that Roots may start black, white, brown, red, yellow people digging back for their own roots. Man, that would make me feel 90 feet tall.


Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.


Tying the little folks with the older folks is a great and powerful tool to preserve and to protect the family and the individual.


When an old person dies it’s like a library burning.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh  1926
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all your generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.

Roma Hanks

Roma Hanks
It is my belief that grand-parenting is the most important family role of the new century.

Louise Hay

Louise Hay  1926 – 2017
If you want love and acceptance from your family, then you must give love and acceptance to them.

Elbert Hubbard

Elbert Hubbard  1856 – 1915
No matter what you have done for yourself, or for humanity, if you can’t look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  J   


Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson  1743 – 1826
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  K   


Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Marge Kennedy
It’s important for all single parents to remember that not everything that goes wrong, from your son’s bad attitude towards school to the six holes in your teenage daughter’s ear, is because you live in a single-parent home. Every family has its problems.


Soup is a lot like a family. Each ingredient enhances the others; each batch has its own characteristics; and it needs time to simmer to reach full flavour.


The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us all to become our best while looking our worst.


Yes, single-parent families are different from two-parent families. And urban families are different from rural ones, and families with six kids and a dog are different from one-child, no-pet households. But even if there is only one adult presiding at the dinner table, yours is every bit as much a real family as the Waltons.

Miranda Kerr

Miranda Kerr  1983
While it’s nice to appreciate the fashion world… what makes you happy are real relationships and the moments you share with loved ones.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Helen Ketchum  
Grandmothers are voices of the past and role models of the present. Grandmothers open the doors to the future.

Helen Ketchum quote: Grandmothers are voices of the past and role models of the present. Grandmothers open the doors to the future. - Spiritual Quotes To Live ByMy children with their paternal grandmother & great-grandmothers in 1989
Charles Kuralt

Charles Kuralt  1934 – 1997
The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important then wealth and privilege.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  L   


Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Jack Layton
Cherish every moment with those you love, at every stage of your journey.

Jack Layton quote: Cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey. - Spiritual Quotes To Live ByFamily camping holiday – Cornwall 1973
Mike Love

Mike Love  1941
The great thing about getting older is that you get a chance to tell the people in your life who matter, what they mean to you.

Rosamund Lupton

Rosamund Lupton
We are conjoined by hundreds of thousands of memories that silt down into you and stop being memories and become a part of what you are.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  M   


Madonna

Madonna  1958  
Family is everything. Family comes first. It’s not what I expected it to be, but nothing ever is.

Neal A. Maxwell

Neal A. Maxwell  1926 – 2004
God’s extraordinary work is most often done by ordinary people in the seeming obscurity of a home and family.

Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead  1901 – 1978
Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.

George Moore

George Moore  1852 – 1933
A man travels the world in search of what he needs.. and returns home to find it.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Movie – Mrs Doubtfire
There are all sorts of different families. Some families have one mommy, some families have one daddy, or two families. And some children live with their uncle or aunt. Some live with their grandparents, and some children live with foster parents. And some live in separate homes, in separate neighbourhoods, in different areas of the country – and they may not see each other for days, or weeks, months.. even years at a time. But, if there’s love – those are the ties that bind, and you’ll have a family in your heart, forever.

Swami Muktananda

Swami Muktananda  1908 – 1982   
Love is our only reason for living and the only purpose of life. We live for the sake of love, and we live seeking love… it is not surprising that we keep looking for love. All of us are nothing but vibrations of love.  We are sustained by love, and in the end we merge back into love…

This world is nothing but a school of love, our relationships with our husband or wife, with our children and parents, with our friends and relatives are the university in which we are meant to learn what love an devotion truly are.

Yet the love we experience through other people is just a shadow of the love of the inner self. There is a sublime place inside us where love dwells. The love that pulses in the cave of the heart does not depend on anything outside. It does not expect anything. It is completely independent.

Robert Muller

Robert Muller  1923 – 2010
Don’t you think God would smile and feel good, if your spouse, your children, your parents, your teachers, your colleagues, your spiritual guides would smile and feel good, if you said to them these simple words: ‘I am happy. Thank you for giving me happiness.’


Each mother and father should devote quite some time to the family’s history. An entire new science and art of family and individual history should be developed and taught: ancestry, genealogy, name etymology, oral history, written history, pictorial history, family heirlooms and souvenirs, scrapbooks, photo collections etc.. What deep joys can be derived from family history! It increases the love and role of the family, the fundamental, basic social unit.


Every human being has stories to tell. Please tell them. They are part of the bloodstream of our cosmic journey, the transmission of our experience and wisdom to our descendants.


If we cannot live in peace in our family, how can we expect peace of the human family.


Love must become the subject of serious scientific study. Loved children are healthier, happier, more peaceful children. Loved husbands have seldom heart attacks. Loved plants grow better. Loved animals are not vicious. Loved nations do not wage war. A humanity of loving people will be a peaceful humanity. To promote love means therefore to promote peace. Yes, let us have a loveology, a science of love, to start with a World University of Love.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  N   


Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Native American – Chinook
We call upon all those who have lived on this earth, our ancestors and our friends, who dreamed the best for our future generations, and upon whose lives our lives our built, and with thanksgiving, we call upon them to… Teach us, and show us the Way.

This is part of a longer Blessing on the Native American Tribes page.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  O   


Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Clara Ortega
To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each others hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

Amos Oz

Amos Oz  1939
I find the family the most mysterious and fascinating institution of the world.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  P   


Frank Pittman

Frank Pittman  1953 – 2012
The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects men. The end product of child-raising is not the child but the parent.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Letty Cottin Pogrebin  1939
If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together – but separable, each segment distinct.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  R   


Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Ruth E. Renkel
Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Kate Roberts
When parents say ‘I’m sorry,’ they are saying so much more.

Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti  1830 – 1894
For there is no friend like a sister, in calm or stormy weather. To cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one, if one goes astray. To lift one, if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.

Jalal Uddin Rumi

Jalal Uddin Rumi  1207 – 1273
Always search for your innermost nature in those you are with, as rose oil imbibes from roses.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  S   


Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Kate Samperi
Before becoming a mother I had a hundred theories on how to bring up children. Now I have seven children and only one theory.. Love them, especially when they least deserve to be loved.

George Santayana

George Santayana  1863 – 1952
The family is one of life’s masterpieces.

George Santayana quote: The family is one of life's masterpieces. - Spiritual Quotes To Live ByMy parents & mum’s family at Stonehenge in 1950’s
Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir  1916 – 1988
Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible – the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.

Friedrich Schiller  1759 – 1805
It is not flesh and blood, but the heart that makes us fathers and sons.

Olive Schreiner

Olive Schreiner  1855 – 1920
Our fathers had their dreams, we have ours, the generation that follows will have its own.

Lucy, Jessica & Seth at Warwick Castle in 2016
Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle  1780 – 1866
Our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch of our ancestors as we walk over this Earth.

Marquise de Sevigne

Marquise de Sevigne  1626 – 1696
We cannot destroy kindred: our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break.

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw  1856 – 1950 
A happy family is but an earlier Heaven.


Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

John Sinor
It is admirable for a man to take his son fishing, but there is a special place in Heaven for the father who takes his daughter shopping.

Dodie Smith

Dodie Smith  1896 – 1990
The family…  that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.

Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks  1965
My wife, my family, my friends.. they’ve all taught me things about love and what that emotion really means. In a nutshell, loving someone is about giving, not receiving.

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart  1941
Over the years I learned so much from mom. She taught me about the importance of home and history and family and tradition. She also taught me that aging need not mean narrowing the scope of your activities and interests.

Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart  1945
You go through life wondering what is it all about, but at the end of the day, it’s all about family.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky  1882 – 1971
It’s one of nature’s ways that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us.

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep  1949 
My family really does come first.  It always did and always will.


There’s no road map on how to raise a family, it’s always an enormous negotiation.

Charles R. Swindoll

Charles R. Swindoll  1934
A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  T   


Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa  1910 – 1997
Love begins by taking care of the closest ones… the ones at home.

family quote – Lucy, Joey, Emma & Seth
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa  1910 – 1997
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 you to grow up in greater love for each other.

Lucy & Jessica (2002)
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa  1910 – 1997
The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.


What can you do to promote world peace?… Go home and love your family.

Mother Teresa quote: What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. - Spiritual Quotes To Live Byfamily quote – With my parents & brothers in late 1980’s

Desmond Tutu  1931
You don’t choose your family, they are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  V   


Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk  1975
Love your family.  Work super hard.  Love your passion.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  W   


Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg  1971
For me, family always comes first; I would do anything to protect them.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Dan Wilcox
I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich.

Anthony Douglas Williams

Anthony Douglas Williams
Treat other animals as friends and they become friends.  Treat other animals as family and they become family.  Give other animals your love and they will love you in return.

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse  1983 – 2011
I’m happiest with my family around me.

Joseph B. Wirthlin

Joseph B. Wirthlin  1817 – 2008
The place to cure most of the ills of society is in the homes of the people.

Lois Wyse

Lois Wyse  1926 – 2007
Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation.


Secreted in the basements and attics of memory are the hidden treasures of family history that only a grandmother can recall, write and hand down.

Spiritual Quotes To Live By

Family Quotes:  Y   


Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda  1893 – 1952
Kindness is the Light that dissolves all walls between Souls, families and nations.

Paramahansa Yogananda quote: Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families & nations. - Spiritual Quotes To Live Byfamily quote
Spiritual Quotes To Live By

FAMILY  –  Sayings

BABIES  –  Quotes  &  Sayings

CHILDREN  –  Quotes  &  Sayings

FATHERS  –  Quotes  &  Sayings

GRANDMOTHER – Quotes &  Sayings

MOTHERS  –  Quotes  &  Sayings

PARENTS  –  Quotes

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Love, Light, Blessings - Spiritual Quotes To Live By

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