"If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be"
About this Quote
The intent isn’t to define “perfection” so much as to puncture our craving for it. Berra, speaking from a world of errors measured in public - booted grounders, blown calls, slumps that become headlines - treats imperfection as the operating system. The subtext is: stop negotiating with reality. You don’t get a perfect world; you get a world that is, and it’s “perfect” only in the sense that it is complete, finished, unrevisable. The punchline turns on a sly tautology: if everything were flawless, the world would no longer resemble the world. Perfection would be a different category of existence, not an upgrade of this one.
Context matters: baseball is a sport built on failure. Even the greats make outs most of the time. That makes Berra’s humor feel earned rather than glib - a clubhouse proverb with scuffed knees. In a culture addicted to optimization and hot takes about how things “should” be, Berra offers an anti-solution: accept the mess, then play anyway. It’s not resignation; it’s resilience disguised as a dumb joke, which is exactly why it sticks.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Berra, Yogi. (2026, January 15). If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-the-world-was-perfect-it-wouldnt-be-26819/
Chicago Style
Berra, Yogi. "If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-the-world-was-perfect-it-wouldnt-be-26819/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-the-world-was-perfect-it-wouldnt-be-26819/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.






