From early morning pep talks to late night heart-to-hearts, the words we share with our families can stay with us forever. Apart from dad’s super-specific dishwasher loading instructions, that is. This Valentine’s Day, we’ve put together a collection of quotes to celebrate your very first love: family – in all of its wonderfully specific weirdness. Whether you’re looking for Valentine’s Day card inspiration, an upgrade on your family motto, or words that are worthy of a personalized love book, you won’t be short of something special to say.
Taken from a variety of wordsmithing sources, these family love quotes also include a sprinkling of classic family sayings that everyone will warm to. Browse our lovely list to find the words that will speak to your family this Valentine’s Day (and possibly forever after).
Funny family quotes
From tongue-in-cheek observations to spit-take silliness, funny lines to tickle every family member.
1. “Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts.” – Wayne Huizenga
2. “There’s so much I love about our family. Especially the bit when you’re all asleep.” – Anonymous
3. “If no one else will have us, at least we have each other.” – Traditional
4. “Children are a great comfort to us in our old age, and they help us reach it faster, too.” – John Ruskin
5. “What strange creatures brothers are!” – Jane Austen
6. “If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.” – George Bernard Shaw
7. “I’m so glad this family is on my side. They’d make terrifying enemies.” – Anonymous
8. “You can kid the world, but not your sister.” – Charlotte Gray
9. “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” – George Burns
10. “Children brighten up a household. They never turn the lights off.” – Ralph Bus Read
Short family quotes
Your loved ones, in a nutshell. Pocket-sized quotes that say it all (and fit perfectly in a card).
11. “In time of test, family is best.” – Burmese proverb
12. “I sustain myself with the love of family.” – Maya Angelou
13. “Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” – David Ogden Stiers
14. “Family: where life begins and love never ends.” – Anonymous
15. “Life is beautiful. It’s about giving. It’s about family.” – Walt Disney
16. “Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.” – Albert Einstein
17. “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” – Michael J. Fox
18. “The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.” – George Santayana
19. “Family is the heart of a home.” – Anonymous
20. ““Family is my happy place.” – Anonymous
Beautiful family quotes
Need some well-crafted, heartstring-pinging words? Quotes to make them feel all the feels.
21. “It didn’t matter how big our house was; it mattered that there was love in it.” – Peter Buffett
22. “The family — that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.” – Dodie Smith
23. “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
24. “I have a wonderful shelter, which is my family.” – José Carreras
25. “We must take care of our families – wherever we find them.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
26. “Family is found…whether it be blood or circumstance or choice, what binds us does not matter. All that matters is that we are bound.” – Taylor Jenkins Reid
27. “In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
28. “Everyone needs a house to live in, but a supportive family is what builds a home.” – Anthony Liccione
29. “The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.” – Mother Teresa
30. “Family should be the place where you can be your most complete self.” – Oprah Winfrey
Happy family quotes
Spread some joy and celebrate your extra-special bond with these cheerful sayings.
31. “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” – George Bernard Shaw
32. “If the family were a boat, it would be a canoe that makes no progress unless everybody paddles.” – Letty Cottin Pogrebin
33. “There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy, or more exasperated, or more secure.” – Jim Butcher
34. “A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal and the common cold.” – Ogden Nash
35. “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
36. “The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us all to become our best while looking our worst.” – Marge Kennedy
37. “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.” – Walt Whitman
38. “You can kiss your family goodbye 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.” – William Paul Young
39. “A family doesn’t have to be perfect; it just needs to be united.” – Anonymous
40. “Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them and enjoy their riches.” – Wanda Hope Carter
Inspirational family quotes
Raise loved ones’ spirits and bring them closer with heart-stirring words to live by.
41. “In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, a bridge to our future.” – Alex Haley
42. “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
43. “The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.” – Ring Lardner
44. “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.” – Sarah Dessen
45. “The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton
46. “Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark.” – Pierce Brown
47. “Families are like branches on a tree, we grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.” – Anonymous
48. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.” – Richard Bach
49. “Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still.” – Sophocles
50. “Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” – Brad Henry
