Who said you can pick your friends but not your family?

Meaning: Some things you can choose, but others you cannot, so you have to try to make the best of what you have where you have no choice.

All idioms have been editorially reviewed, and submitted idioms may have been edited for correctness and completeness.

Similar Idioms

If you have a question about idioms, ask us about it in our Idioms Discussion Forum.

If you know of an idiom that you would like to be listed here, please use our online form to suggest an idiom.

List of top 36 famous quotes and sayings about you can choose friends but not family to read and share with friends on your Facebook, Twitter, blogs.

#1. You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't. - Author: Harper Lee

#2. To my friends, and family: You all may be batsh*t crazy, but even if I got to choose, I'd still choose to be with you. - Author: Amelia Hutchins

#3. Weren't your friends the family you got to choose? - Author: Karen Swan

#4. He claimed that there was no greater natural advantage in life than having an enemy overestimate your faults, unless it was to have a friend underestimate your virtues. - Author: Mario Puzo

#5. As straight Americans we have two choices: we can choose to sit back and enjoy our rights as we have them, or we can realize that it is actually not freedom at all when our friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues do not share these basic rights. - Author: Jack Antonoff

#6. Forgive the cliche, but friends are truly the family you choose. - Author: Jen Lancaster

#7. Waka Flocka is a product, a franchise, a brand, a label ... And a good guy! - Author: Waka Flocka Flame

#8. The scariest people are usually the sweetest. - Author: Eli Roth

#9. Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars. - Author: Richard Halliburton

#10. Friends are the family we choose. - Author: Jennifer Aniston

#11. I eat right, I sleep, I work out, I'm happy. I have a beautiful family, nice friends. I choose the good things. I choose the happy, healthy things. I don't choose the bad, unhealthy, unhappy things. - Author: Sharon Stone

#12. Maybe it's about opening up your definition of family to include friends, too. Because friends are the family you choose. - Author: Kim Holden

#13. Thank goodness, we can choose our friends. We have to take our relatives as they are, and be thankful ... - Author: L.M. Montgomery

#14. friends are the family you choose. - Author: Kim Holden

#15. When people say "If I only knew then what I know now" makes me wonder why they aren't using that wisdom now. - Author: Rob Liano

#16. Today, chess programs have become so good that even grandmasters sometimes struggle to understand the logic behind some of their moves. - Author: Kenneth Rogoff

#17. I want to play women my own age, rather than artificially 'de-age' myself so that I can play women who are younger or much younger than I am. I want to grow into those kind of more mature parts, not try and keep them at bay for as long as I possibly can. - Author: Cherie Lunghi

#18. Birth mothers choose life, and a family, for their child. But this choice is rarely celebrated. Women routinely face family, friends and even health-care providers who think that adoption equals abandonment, according to researchers and conversations with birth mothers. - Author: Nina Easton

#19. God gives us relatives; thank God, we can choose our friends. - Author: Addison Mizner

#20. In community we are called to care for each member of the community. We can. Choose our friends but we do not choose our brothers and sisters' they are given to us, whether in family or in community." Jean - Author: Jean Vanier

#21. We can help pave the roads of those around us, but we can't choose their direction. - Author: Michelle Moran

#22. How many things are now at loose ends! Who knows which way the wind will blow tomorrow? - Author: Henry David Thoreau

#23. Friends are family you choose. - Author: Edna Buchanan

#24. My family and friends were definitely the key to my recovery. One thing that I do suggest is that anyone dealing with a life-threatening illness like cancer choose a point person for people to call to find out how you are doing - a sister, brother, mother, father, daughter, son, or close friend. - Author: Olivia Newton-John

#25. It is true that you can't choose your family, but you can choose your friends.
It is also true that you can choose your partner and in doing so, you end up choosing the family you've always wanted. - Author: J.R. Rim

#26. I've always looked at friends as the family we choose. - Author: Joan Lunden

#27. Friends are the family we choose for ourselves - Author: Edna Buchanan

#28. AMELIA: To my friends, and family: You all may be batsh*t crazy, but even if I got to choose, I'd still choose to be with you. Life is fragile, and tomorrow is never a sure thing, so thanks for sharing your lives with me..... - Author: Amelia Hutchins

#29. She left me. All this time she was gone, I didn't know if she was dead or just didn't want me. But now it doesn't matter. I choose my new parents and I choose my friends. I choose the family I made. I choose me. - Author: Madeleine Roux

#30. Friends are the family you get to choose for yourself. - Author: Mia Sheridan

#31. The people you choose to have around you make all the difference. My family and close friends keep me grounded. You have to have a mind of your own and a strong head on your shoulders. Cricket is the most important thing to me, so the rest of it pales in comparison. - Author: Virat Kohli

#32. I've actually always been a big fan of seafood. Sushi is one my favorite things. - Author: Alexander Gould

#33. Friends are the family that you choose. - Author: Jess C. Scott

#34. Our relatives are ours by chance, but we can choose our friends. - Author: Jacques Delille

#35. What ideals, when followed, will bring to you those blessings you so much seek, even a quiet conscience, a peace-filled heart, a loving family, a contented home? May I suggest these three: Choose your friends with caution. Plan your future with purpose. Frame your life with faith. - Author: Thomas S. Monson

#36. And yeah, I know most people would think it weird that two guy friends touch as much as we do, but when you choose your family, you get to choose how it is between you, too. This is how we work. I hope you get to choose your family and I hope it means as much to you as mine does to me. - Author: Patrick Ness

Who said you can choose your friends but you sho can't choose your family?

What is the saying you can choose your friends but not family?

Who said the quote friends are the family you choose?

Who said you can't choose your family?