50 Uncle Quotes Honoring the Family Member

By Clifton Sankofa | Published August 20, 2023

Increase your gratitude and share some love with our uncle quotes.

Uncles are essential pieces to our development, and today we celebrate all of their efforts.

Learn more with our uncle quotes below.

What is an uncle?

An uncle is a male relative who is a sibling of a person’s parent.

In many cultures, younger people refer to older people in their community as uncle.

Check out these other names for the word uncle from different cultures:

In Arabic, an uncle can be khal or amm.
In Polish culture, people call their uncle wujek.
In India, some people use the word chacha for uncle.

Why are uncles important?

I did not have a father in my life, but I did have an uncle.

My Uncle Donald taught me many things.

He is the person who helped me develop my basketball game.

I went to work with him at summer camps, which ultimately inspired me to become a teacher.

He was a person I could share things with who did not make me feel judged.

He did not tell me if I confided in him, but he let me know if he thought something I was doing was not okay.

Uncles are people in our lives who help us develop by fostering our strengths while holding us accountable in meaningful ways.

The psychological impact of uncles

Psychologists have long studied the impact of familial relationships.

Aunts and uncles have been proven to provide many resources for their developing nieces and nephews.

Uncles serve as the cool adult who can reason with children when they become defiant.

Uncles offer alternative points of view that children rarely see.

They humanize the efforts of parents and help young people see the bright side of challenging experiences.

Uncles can also serve as surrogate parents for people who do not have parents present in their lives.

Three cheers for uncles!

Uncles pass down valuable lessons and wisdom

How many people learned to drive a car because their uncle taught them?

Or what about your batting stance, how to fish, or how to play chess?

Uncles share knowledge that young people use to shape their world.

To learn more, check out our uncle quotes below.

Short uncle quotes celebrating everyone’s favorite relative

Let’s start with these short uncle quotes celebrating our parent’s brother.

1. “An uncle is forever.” — Irene Banks

2. “My uncle is so funny.” — Bam Margera

3. “An uncle is a blessing.” — Irene Banks

4. “My martial arts came a lot from my uncle.” — Brian Tee

5. “My uncle was a gangster in the real gangster days.” — Bugzy Malone

6. “Everyone had an uncle who tried to steal their nose.” Peter Kay

7. “They’ve got great parents; I’m just trying to be the fun uncle.” — Sarah Silverman

8. “I think my uncle was probably the biggest influence in my life.” — Catherine Bell

9. “My uncle’s dying wish; he wanted me on his lap. He was in the electric chair.” — Rodney Dangerfield

10. “An uncle is a bond of faith that even time can’t sever, a gift to last all of our lives.” — Irene Banks

The top uncle quotes celebrating close family ties

These quotes remind us why uncles are important to so many people.

11. “My uncle used to love me, but she died.” — Roger Miller

12. “It’s healthy to say uncle when your bone’s about to break.” — Jonathan Franzen

13. “If necessity is the mother of invention, urgency is the uncle of change.” — Nell Scovell

14. “My uncle was a second father to me. I spent most of my childhood with him.” —
Rey Mysterio

15. “A man with a hump-backed uncle mustn’t make fun of another man’s cross-eyed aunt.” — Mark Twain

16. “The press is like the peculiar uncle you keep in the attic, just one of those unfortunate things.” —G. Gordon Liddy

17. “Uncle Brett had a definite vision that he was after. I don’t think having a famous father affected him much.” — Kim Weston

18. “Pirate was going to be my middle name, but then my uncle had a problem with it because pirates are bad.” — Billie Eilish

19. “I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes, and moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle’s.” —William Shakespeare

20. “Everyone likes to learn history. They just don’t like to hear it from a professor looking at notes. They like to hear it like it’s from their uncle, and that’s how I explain history.” —Rick Harrison

The best embarrassing uncle quotes to make you laugh

Who doesn’t have an embarrassing uncle to make life awkward?

21. “No family is complete without an embarrassing uncle.” — Peter Morgan

22. “My father was strict and always taught me, no matter who it is, everybody is an uncle.” — Mariano Rivera

23. “The great thing about being an uncle is being able to give the kid back when they start crying.” — Rob Rolfe

24. “My uncle Sammy was an angry man. He had printed on his tombstone: What are you looking at?” — Margaret Smith

25. “I’ve had aunts and uncles who not only haven’t read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.” — Robert Cormier

26. “I certainly have many, many uncles. Their maturity level is still hovering around 15 when they all get together.” — Martha MacIsaac

27. “As a writer, I have a responsibility. As a father, a union organizer, a leader, a son, brother, uncle, friend as a man.” — Carlos Wallace

28. “I’ve got an uncle myself. Nobody should be held responsible for their uncles. Nature’s little throwbacks, that’s how I look at it.” — Agatha Christie

29. “My wife had an uncle who could never walk down the nave of an abbey without wondering whether it would take spin.” — Alec Douglas-Home

30. “It is really important for boys to have a father, or a grandfather, or an uncle – a man they can really relate to who loves them, and who they know loves them.” — Laura Bush

Famous I’m proud of my uncle quotes

Here are some really cool uncle quotes for the nieces and nephews who love them.

31. “As a matter of fact, I am an uncle.” — Dean Norris

32. “Being an uncle brings me utter joy.” —Russell Tovey

33. “You can tell your uncle stuff that you could not tell your dad.” — Dusty Baker

34. “My uncle, gentlemen, could say nothing; he was so very much astonished.” — Charles Dickens

35. “That it’s better to retire, in Uncle Earl’s terms, when you still have some snap left in your garters.” — Russel B. Long

36. “It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of modern medical thought.” —P.G. Wodehouse

37. “That is kind of the role of an uncle. I feel very much like a father sometimes, but sometimes I feel like a teammate.” — Dusty Baker

38. “I mean, I’m an uncle of seven or eight, and I don’t mind it at all! Kids are great. Kids are the best six-hour experience you can have!” — Chris O’Dowd

39. “I think most people have that crazy uncle they sit at Thanksgiving dinner with someone they disagree with politically but love them anyway.” — Alan Colmes

40. “The beautiful thing about having family that has diabetes is knowing what not to do. I got an uncle that thinks insulin is supposed to enable him to eat cake.” — Damon Wayans

Uncle quotes and sayings about life

We finish our list with these uncle quotes to live by.

41. “Funcle: Like a dad, only cooler.” — Kalhoun Tibbs

42. “I like being an uncle because there’s no such thing as a deadbeat uncle.” — Matt Nedostup

43. “An uncle of mine emigrated to Canada and couldn’t take his guitar with him.” — Sting

44. “I could not spend the rest of my life sitting in Brazil writing down who called whom uncle and aunt.” — Alan Furst

45. “I had a wonderful family, including my aunts, uncles, and cousins, but they’ve all gone to heaven.” — Doris Day

46. “Never was a brother or cousin, but unclehood looms, and so do lessons on wearing loud ties, talking with a full mouth, stealing a nose.” — Jeff Kleinman

47. “My 2-yr-old nephew learned to imitate laser beam sounds, a rite of childhood. Getting hit with a lot of imaginary beams, a rite of unclehood.” — Matthew Pleasant

48. “In the perfect stranger, we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

49. “My main nurturing instinct toward children is mild sadism; picking them up and threatening to drop them, which is why I am a good uncle but would make a poor father.” — Thomm Quackenbush

50. “From that point on, I would refer to him as your uncle, and he would mostly refer to me as your aunt, and it would take a long time for our children to even understand that we were siblings first.” — Jenny Zhang