If you grew up with siblings, then you know that there's no one else on the entire planet that knows you better than your sis or bro. So, to honor National Siblings Day — which takes place on Apr. 10 — here are a few quotes about siblings that capture everything that a siblings relationship represents, including the good, the bad, and the ugly (but mostly the good!). As for those of you who did not grow up with siblings, one of these quotes even touches on your story. There's a quote here for everyone this National Siblings Day, so no matter how many brothers or sisters you have (or don't have), make sure you take the time to read up.
Siblings have a lot in common beyond their DNA. They usually grow up in the same home, with the same parents, and subsequently, often have similar upbringing. This sometimes means that they view the world in the same way, even if their reactions to it are polar opposites. A sibling can be standing beside her brother or sister while something joyful, sorrowful, terrifying, or confusing is happening and likely know exactly how that brother or sister is feeling. While this can be a bit freaky at times, it's also pretty amazing.
If you have a sibling in your life, share the love this National Siblings Day by texting them one of these thoughtful sibling quotes. You're blood, and as these quotes prove, there's nothing stronger (or closer) than that.
1. "Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk." — Susan Scarf Merrell
2. "We know one another's faults, virtues, catastrophes, mortifications, triumphs, rivalries, desires, and how long we can each hang by our hands to a bar. We have been banded together under pack codes and tribal laws." — Rose Macaulay
3. "The family is one of nature's masterpieces." — George Santayana
4. "Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring, quite often the hard way." — Pamela Dugdale
5. "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
6. "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
7. "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
8. "Our siblings. They resemble us just enough to make all their differences confusing, and no matter what we choose to make of this, we are cast in relation to them our whole lives long." — Susan Scarf Merrell
9. "Friends are the siblings God never gave us." — Mencius
10. "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
11. "Sibling relationships — and 80 percent of Americans have at least one - outlast marriages, survive the death of parents, resurface after quarrels that would sink any friendship. They flourish in a thousand incarnations of closeness and distance, warmth, loyalty and distrust." — Erica E. Goode
12. "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." — Desmond Tutu
13. "Our siblings push buttons that cast us in roles we felt sure we had let go of long ago — the baby, the peacekeeper, the caretaker, the avoider.... It doesn't seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we've traveled." — Jane Mersky Leder
