Quotes About Brothers

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When you were growing up, did your brother greet you with a black eye or a hug?

Did you spend your days roughhousing, playing outside, or competing with one another to win the top score on your latest console game?

However you spent your childhood together, your brother – whether he was older or younger than you – probably had one of the most important roles in shaping who you are today.

Maybe you have a contentious relationship with your brother, or maybe it’s the most wonderful, loving relationship in the world – or maybe it’s both, depending on the day!

The relationship between brothers – and between brothers and sisters – is unique.

But brothers don’t have to be blood relations. Maybe those you see as your “brothers” aren’t even men who grew up in the same household or neighborhood as you did.

They are just incredible friends you met later in life – at college, in your workplace, or through a hobby you enjoy – who have always been there for you.

What defines a brother like this is that they are reliable and trustworthy in all circumstances.

Lego Batman and Lego Superman with a quote about brothers and superheroes
“Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.” – Marc Brown

To celebrate the brotherly bond, we’ve put together a list of the very best brother quotes out there. These quotes come from authors, thinkers, and celebrities who have shared their feelings about their own siblings.

Our hope is that, when you read these quotes about brothers, you might find quite a few that remind you of your own brother or brothers.

Many of these timeless sayings also recognize the concept of a higher brotherhood that unites all of humanity.

Brotherhood as a larger concept means finding it in your heart to truly care about your fellow human beings, and allowing them to lift you up as well when you need it.

A brother is someone you can depend on, and who you will do anything for.

Read on to enjoy these inspirational quotes about brotherhood!

Brother Quotes

There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother… Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too.

Anna Quindlen
“Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet.”
“Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet.” – Vietnamese Proverb

I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.

Maya Angelou

Never make a companion equal to a brother.

Hesiod

It was nice growing up with someone like you – someone to lean on, someone to count on… someone to tell on!

Unknown

Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart.

Melodie Ramone
Two young brothers in Sesame Street floaties smiling up from inside a swimming pool
“A brother shares childhood memories and grown-up dreams.” – Unknown

She had always wanted a brother. And she had one now. Sebastian. It was like always wanting a puppy and being a hellhound instead.

Cassandra Clare

The younger brother must help to pay for the pleasures of the elder.

Jane Austen

The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out his nose.

Garrison Keillor

My sister was drowning in the ocean once, and my brother and I dove in and saved her. True story. She owes us her life. It’s great leverage; we abuse it all the time!

Matt Barr

I grew up with a younger brother, so I can get pretty rowdy.

Sarah Wynter
The Wright Brothers testing an experimental plane in a field on a gray day
“Because brothers don’t let each other wander in the dark alone.” – Jolene Perry

We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Being his real brother I could feel I live in his shadows, but I never have and I do not now. I live in his glow.

Michael Morpurgo

Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.

Susan Scarf Merrell

Help your brother’s boat across, and your own will reach the shore.

Hindu Proverb
A toddler and his newborn brother in a blanket laying on a paisley quilt together
“I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.” – James Boswell

There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.

Edwin Markham

Brothers don’t necessarily have to say anything to each other – they can sit in a room and be together and just be completely comfortable with each other.

Leonardo DiCaprio

The best way to get a puppy is to beg for a baby brother – and they’ll settle for a puppy every time.

Winston Pendelton

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.'” ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’

Harmon Kellebrew
Two brothers in Zegna tuxedos talking before the older brother's wedding
“It takes two men to make one brother.” – Israel Zangwill

One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, men are not united but merely lined up.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

When I look at each of my brothers, I see two things. First, I see the next place I want to leave a rosy welt. Second, I see a good man who will always be there, no matter how hard life gets for me or him. Then, I get out of the way because I realize he’s coming at me with a wet dish towel.

Dan Pearce

Nothing can stop me from loving my brother.

Brandy Norwood

I grew up with six brothers. That’s how I learned to dance – waiting for the bathroom.

Bob Hope

All men were made by the Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers.

Chief Joseph
Three brothers in navy quilted Barbour coats sitting on a dock beside a lake
“When brothers agree, no fortress is so strong as their common life.” – Antisthenes

If you want to know how your girl will treat you after marriage, just listen to her talking to her little brother.

Sami Levenson

There’s no other love like the love for a brother. There’s no other love like the love from a brother.

Astrid Alauda

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 other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

Clara Ortega

It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.

Dylan Thomas
A girl sharking a joke with her little brother under a tall cottonwood tree
“After a girl is grown, her little brothers — now her protectors — seem like big brothers.” – Terri Guillemets

Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well and an be of service to him. And blessed is he who loves his brother as well when he is afar off as when he is by his side, and who would say nothing behind his back he might not, in love, say before his face.

St. Francis of Assisi

A sibling may be the keeper of one’s identity, the only person with the keys to one’s unfettered, more fundamental self.

Marian Sandmaier

Being pretty on the inside means you don’t hit your brother and you eat all your peas – that’s what my grandma taught me.

Lord Chesterfield

I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother and I found all three.

Unknown
Two little boys in plaid shirts holding hands and walking across a grassy field
“A friend is a brother who was once a brother.” – Unknown

I was a tomboy and I didn’t have a bunch of brothers but I always wanted them and so I sort of adopted a few of my great friends to be my brother.

Olivia Wilde

I hated Chris, my brother. I would pull his hair and kick him, until one day my father gave him permission to fight back. I’ll be apologizing to him for the rest of my life.

Stevie Nicks

My father wants me to be like my brother, but I can’t be.

Robert Mapplethorpe

If you have a brother or sister, tell them you love them every day – that’s the most beautiful thing. I told my sister how much I loved her every day. That’s the only reason I’m OK right now.

Amaury Nolasco
Oscar Wilde sitting on an opulent couch and writing quotes about brothers
“Oh, brothers! I don’t care for brothers. My elder brother won’t die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.” – Oscar Wilde

Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply.

Jane Austen

My big brother still thinks he’s a better singer than me.

Rod Stewart

I can’t work with my brother without laughing.

Dick van Dyke

Now that you have read these sayings and quotes about brothers, we hope that you have gained a little perspective on your own sibling relationships.

As these words remind us, even though our brothers may annoy us at times, they are some of the closest friends we’ll ever make – and a great brother is a wonderful gift.

Say thank you to your brother on National Brother’s Day, which is celebrated each year on May 24th! Though it can seem like there is a day to celebrate every little thing, the bond between siblings is one that is definitely worth celebrating.

Photo of author

Quincy Seale

Quincy is KIM's editor, and has collected and shared inspiring quotes and stories since 2005. Quincy holds an MBA from the University of Dundee and an MSc from the University of Edinburgh, and lives in San Antonio with his wife Natalie, son Alex, and his dog Oban.

3 thoughts on “Quotes About Brothers”

  1. I have a brother that I wouldn’t trade for the world. When we was younger I would have in a minute. Lol not. I love my brother

    Reply
  2. I’m making a picture album for my 2 great-grandsons and I’m using some of the quotes to go with pictures of them. I think they will enjoy the book as they get older.

    Reply

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