Family Legacy Quotes: 5 Keys to a Lasting Heritage
Family legacy quotes remind us that the best things we leave behind aren’t in our will or bank account.
My family tree includes Samuel Pepys, the famous diary writer who wrote about his daily life in London in the 1660s. He wrote about everyday moments, family life, and even the Great Fire of London. These diary entries made him famous, but more importantly, they’ve given my family a special connection to our ancestor. It’s like a priceless gift across time!
Now that I’m in my 40s, I often wonder what my own family legacy will be. What stories and values will I pass down? Samuel Pepys’ simple words have lasted for hundreds of years, showing how a well-told story can outlive us and shape the lives of those who come after. What can I learn from this for my own life?
Curious about creating my own lasting legacy, I gathered the best family legacy quotes that revealed five timeless lessons. These insights show how any family can leave something meaningful for future generations to treasure.
Jump to section:
- Lesson 1 – What Is a Legacy?
- Lesson 2 – The Role of Family in Your Legacy
- Lesson 3 – Your Role in Creating a Family Legacy
- Lesson 4 – How Leaving a Legacy Impacts Future Generations
- Lesson 5 – The Longevity of a Family Legacy
- The Legacy You Carry: What Will You Pass Down?
- 3 Mindset Shifts When Creating A Story Legacy
- How Simirity App Can Be Your Family’s Legacy
- Summary of Family Legacy Quotes
- Your Family Legacy Questions Answered
Lesson 1 – What Is a Legacy?
Before we explore these quotes about leaving a legacy, let’s consider what legacy truly means. Your legacy and your family heritage in general, isn’t only about possessions—it’s what you leave within others. It’s not measured in USD or properties, but in:
- The values that guide your children’s choices.
- The stories that shape their identity.
- The wisdom that helps them navigate life’s challenges.
Your legacy is etched in the hearts and minds of your children and grandchildren.
“The greatest purpose of life is to live it for something that will last longer than you.”
— William James
“Legacy. What is legacy? It's planting seeds in the garden you won't get to see.”
— Lin-Manuel Miranda“What you leave as a legacy is not what is etched in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
— Anonymous“The deeds you do for yourself are gone when you pass away, but the deeds you do for others remain as your legacy.”
— Anonymous“Unlike wealth, there is an infinite value in legacy.”
— Criss Jami“We build our legacies piece by piece, and maybe the world will remember you or perhaps just a few people, but you do anything you can to make sure you’re still around after you leave.”
— David Lowery“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
— Warren Buffett"The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it."
— William James
Lesson 2 – The Role of Family in Your Legacy
These family legacy quotes highlight the human element within legacies.
A 2008 psychotherapy research designed a list of 20 ‘do you know’ questions about family, to see if knowing family history has additional benefits. They found that children who know more about their family history showed:
- Higher well-being on multiple measures.
- Higher self-esteem.
- Higher academic competence.
- Higher social competence.
- Fewer behavior problems.
The simple act of sharing family stories may be the most valuable legacy you can leave.
“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”
— Mother Teresa
“The greatest inheritance you can pass on to your children and grandchildren is more than the money or material possessions you get. It’s a legacy of both character and faith.”
— Billy Graham“Your legacy on this planet when you leave is how many hearts you touched.”
— Patti Davis"In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, bridge to our future."
— Alex Haley
Your memories, their legacy—keep family history alive.
Lesson 3 – Your Role in Creating a Family Legacy
These family legacy quotes suggest that the not valuable inheritance is not based on money or other material things. It’s founded on people and your relationship with them.
Each one of us can create a legacy that inspires our children and future family with nothing more than our actions and words.
Like it or not, we are role models to our children, so set them an example they can learn from.
“Many men can make a fortune but very few can build a family.”
— J.S. Bryan
“If you don't want to be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
— Anonymous"Your greatest contribution may not be something you do but someone you raise."
— Unknown“The greatest legacy you can leave to your kids are happy memories; those special moments so much like rocks on the beach that are taken from the white sand and put in tiny boxes that lay unopened on shelves until one day they fall out and time repeats, with joy and sadness, in the child who is now an adult.”
— Og Mandino“Language lets us reach out to people, to touch people with our deepest fears, hopes, losses, victories. To reach out to people who we’ll never meet. It’s the single greatest legacy you could ever leave to your children or your loved ones: The history of how you felt in your biggest moments.”
— Simon Van Booy”Our legacy will be defined by the victories and boldness by which our daughters and sons take on the challenges the world faces. I also wonder if perhaps the most important and long-lasting demonstration of one’s humility lies in our ability to teach and mentor our children.”
— Naveen Jain“Legacy is not leaving something behind for other people. It’s leaving something behind in other people.”
— Peter Strople“Our stories are the greatest legacy we will leave to our friends. A life story longest-lasting legacy you will leave to future generations.”
— Steve Saint"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
— Maya Angelou
Lesson 4 – How Leaving a Legacy Impacts Future Generations
Family legacy quotes frequently speak of planting trees whose shade we’ll never sit under. Our fourth lesson explores this powerful metaphor—how the legacy we carefully cultivate today isn’t for us. And just like planting a tree, the best time to take action is now.
Stories from our family’s past remind us of our roots. You are the next link in the family chain, and stories about your life can connect you to future generations.
What stories will you leave behind?
“It is up to us to live based on the legacy that was left behind for us, and to leave our own that is worthy of our children, their children, and their children’s children.”
— Christine Gregoire
"It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives."
— Mitch Albom“We are a continuum. In the same way that we reach back to our ancestors for our core values, so we, as guardians of our legacy, must reach ahead to future generations that come after us. And we do so with an awareness of sacredness in that reaching.”
— Paul Tsongas"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
— Greek Proverb
Family is forever—make sure their stories are too.
Lesson 5 – The Longevity of a Family Legacy
My ancestor Samuel Pepys died in 1703, yet his legacy lives on.
However, most of our ancestors left very little behind – names, dates, and perhaps their stated occupations.
How is that supposed to inspire young minds keen to understand how their lives are shaped by the past?
A long-lasting legacy is not something we can take for granted. But as these family legacy quotes highlight, it is a noble aim. We have to work at it if we want it to last forever.
“Even though your time here is temporary, if you do a good enough job, your work will last forever.”
— Anonymous
“Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.”
— Gail Lumet Buckley“In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, bridge to our future.”
— Alex Haley"The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family."
— Lee Iacocca"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."
— Thomas Campbell
The Legacy You Carry: What Will You Pass Down?
Legacies come in many different forms—here are 8 types of legacy you could leave behind, with something available to everyone regardless of wealth.
Have you ever stopped to think about what your family passed down through generations to welcome you?
What do you find meaningful or valuable? Is there something you wish you had inherited as a family legacy? It’s worth reflecting upon as you consider the legacy that you will leave behind.
What I’ve inherited ranked by value
Here are some valuable things I inherited, listed from least important to most important.
- LEAST VALUABLE – Money. To be honest, I don’t remember the details, but I vaguely recall that after my grandparents passed away, some funds were transferred to my bank account. While I was helpful during that time, it felt as if I was trading someone I loved for the opportunity to buy a few things. It didn’t feel like a good deal. Today, I can safely say it had no real impact on my life.
- Old photos. Looking through old photos is a great way to connect with those who passed away. However, many photos feature people I don’t recognise and places I’m unfamiliar with. I don’t even know what they are doing or what year they were taken. I wish we knew their backstory.
- Paintings, furniture, ornaments and handmade objects. I can’t look at certain paintings or wooden cabinets without being reminded of my grandparents. I’ll always treasure them, mainly for the way their memory is woven into our lives simply by being in our view.
- Traditions and habits. This concept may be somewhat intangible, but based on discussions with my family, I believe that many of our traditions have been passed down from our ancestors. We didn’t simply create our behaviours for occasions like Christmas; we inherited them! A lot of what we do, even on a daily basis, undoubtedly has its roots in the past.
- Their wisdom and values. I would love to learn about the origins of our family’s collective wisdom. These hard-earned lessons have undoubtedly been passed down through generations, often without us even realising it. I can’t imagine life without these insights, along with the family values they have helped to shape.
- MOST VALUABLE – Stories. Above all else, I value the stories that have been passed down through our family. I just wish we had more of them! Our family tree is filled with individuals, yet most of them have shared nothing more than their names and the dates of their birth and death. I wish we knew more about their lives, and be able to share their stories with our children and future family.
Forbes summed it up well in their article ‘Like it or not, you’re building a legacy’ .
It’s not a question of WHETHER you will leave behind a legacy; it’s merely a matter of WHAT that legacy will be.
Ready to build a legacy that you’ll be proud of?
Capture your family’s history before it’s too late.
3 Mindset Shifts When Creating A Story Legacy
Building a story legacy isn’t about spending months writing the perfect autobiography. For most people, that’s such a daunting task that it’ll never get started!
Here are three important mindset shifts worth adopting:
1. Authentic Beats Polished
Many people postpone creating their legacy because they want to “do it right”—write the perfect memoir, but perfection is legacy’s enemy.
Your family doesn’t need perfectly crafted stories. They’ll appreciate authenticity—the way you actually talk, your honest thoughts and your real emotions. A five-minute unscripted voice recording about an interesting time or event in your life is far more valuable than an over-edited story.
2. Today’s ‘Normal’ Is Tomorrow’s ‘Fascinating‘
If you grew up in the 1950s-70s, you probably think your childhood was unremarkable. But consider: you lived without internet, without mobile phones, without GPS. You experienced a world where communities functioned completely differently, where family structures looked different, where daily life looked very different to today’s.
And the same will be true about life today—it feels ‘normal’ to us, but future generations will find it fascinating how different it is from their lives.
3. Your story legacy is built in small pieces
Building a story legacy feels overwhelming if you plan to write your entire life story at once. Thankfully, that’s not how meaningful family archives are created.
Your life story can be broken down into many small stories—each one taking just minutes to capture:
- A photo of your childhood home with a voice note sharing memories of your time there.
- A brief written story about how you met your spouse.
- A short video showing how you make your signature recipe.
- A few paragraphs about a lesson you learned the hard way.
Over time, these bite-sized stories build up an ever clearer picture of you and your life—one that can be shared with both today’s and tomorrow’s family.
How Simirity App Can Be Your Family’s Legacy
Simirity is a family business, and this is our story. We are proud of our family roots and the paths we’ve chosen. We’re nothing extraordinary, but within our circle, our lives matter. And we want to preserve our stories so our children and future generations get to connect with us even though we are no longer around.
It took a family health scare for us to recognise how ill-prepared we were to preserve our family stories. We talked about the past occasionally, but without our parents around, so many stories would be lost – stories about my parents’ lives, my childhood, my extended family, our grandparents, and even our ancestors.
What is a good way to preserve stories like these?
- Writing a book or document felt too formal and too big a task. Once written, it would be quite a task for people to read! It would most likely gather dust on the bookshelf…
- Collecting photos is nice, but without comments, their details will be forgotten. And so much of life comes without photos, especially all the stories of our ancestors, which have only been passed down through word of mouth.
- You could do an audio recording and together talk about the stories, but audio alone would not be enough. And once it’s recorded, it’s easy to imagine it would rarely get listened to.
We wanted a blend of the above and more. Mixing text, photos, videos and voice narrations. We wanted it online so all family could access it, but without adverts and privacy concerns. So we built the Simirity App.
Simirity is a family journaling app for cherished memories.
Beyond photos, videos and voice notes, Simirity app uses real-life stories from your family’s past and present to enrich family relationships while storing cherished memories for tomorrow.
Your stories blossom into rewarding conversations that take your family beyond everyday small talk—creating moments of genuine connection that you’ll treasure forever.
Unlike printed stories or digital files that get consumed and then forgotten, stories on Simirity are woven into your daily life with Story Anniversary notifications. Imagine getting a welcome prompt reminding you of what your children did several years ago today, what you did 20 years ago, what your parents did 30 years ago, or even what your ancestors did before you were born.
We believe that media-rich stories about you and your extended family’s lives are the most wonderful legacy to leave behind. Stories that last forever, handed down to the next generation, helping them on their journey. See it in action in our demo account.
Your family’s past, present & future—woven together in Simirity.
Summary of Family Legacy Quotes
We hope these family legacy quotes have inspired you to consider your family’s future. It’s a pretty exciting thing to consider all the things we can do that will outlive us.
Before reading these quotes, legacy might have seemed like something only wealthy or famous people create—estate planning, inheritance and wills. But now you know the truth: your legacy will be built from stories, values passed between generations, and the connections you forged with your family.
It’s not about what you leave for people, but what you leave in them.
What legacy will you leave behind?
A legacy that inspires others? A legacy that shows good character and faith? A legacy that encourages others to try a little harder, just like you?
It’s never too late to get started on your legacy.
- Use these lists of eye-opening questions for mom and for dad to find interesting stories from your family’s past that should be preserved.
- Learn more about your family’s history and heritage, explore options from DNA testing to genealogy exploration using these family genealogy services.
- Ensure your family’s physical heirlooms are safely preserved for the enjoyment of your children’s generation and beyond.
Your legacy starts with a single story. Whether you begin by interviewing loved ones, documenting milestones from your life, or simply capturing a meaningful moment from today, you’re creating something precious. Here’s how family legacies are made in Simirity.
Your Family Legacy Questions Answered
What’s the difference between a legacy and an inheritance?
- Inheritance is what you leave for people—money, property, possessions.
- A legacy is what you leave in people—values, stories, wisdom, and character.
While an inheritance can be spent, a true legacy shapes who your descendants become and influences generations you’ll never meet.
How do I start documenting my family stories if I’m not a writer?
You don’t need to be a skilled writer to capture family stories. Start by recording voice notes about meaningful memories, share photos with descriptions about their content, or try recording conversations with family members as you reminisce about the past. Many families find that talking feels more natural than writing—and hearing a loved one’s voice becomes incredibly precious over time.
Tools like Simirity let you combine text, photos, videos, voice recordings and more in engaging stories. We recommend eight must-have features to get the most from recording family stories. One of which is story prompts like these that help you identify the stories your family will love to hear.
Is it too late to capture stories from elderly relatives?
It’s never too late to start, though sooner is always better. Even if memory isn’t perfect, capturing what remains is invaluable. Ask about ordinary life, not just major events. And remember: the conversations themselves become part of your legacy, regardless of what’s remembered.
What if my family history includes difficult stories?
Authentic legacies include struggles alongside triumphs. In fact, stories about overcoming challenges, surviving hardship, or learning from mistakes often provide the most valuable lessons for younger generations. You can document difficult stories honestly while being thoughtful about what you share.
How do I get my family interested in preserving our stories?
Start small and lead by example. Share one meaningful story yourself and watch how others respond. Ask family members specific questions rather than general ones (“What was it like learning to drive?” works better than “Tell me about your life”).
What are the most important stories to preserve?
We recommend balancing these three types:
- Heritage stories—experiences of parents, grandparents, and ancestors that provide roots.
- Everyday life—routines, traditions, and ordinary moments that capture how your family actually lived and your personalities.
- Life lessons—struggles, failures, and victories that taught you something valuable. The most important stories are the ones that answer questions your descendants will wish they could ask you.
