"If you come to a fork in the road, take it"
About this Quote
Coming from an athlete - and not just any athlete, but a catcher famous for seeing the game from its messiest, most tactical angle - the quote lands as clubhouse wisdom with a wink. Baseball isn’t a clean narrative of choices; it’s adjustments, guesses, instincts, and errors made under pressure. Berra’s deadpan suggests that in real life (and in sports), the demand for the “right” decision is frequently overrated. The important thing is movement: commit, adapt, keep playing.
There’s also a cultural context to the “Yogi-ism” itself. Berra became a kind of American oracle of accidental philosophy: malaprop, comic, and oddly clarifying. His humor gives permission to stop pretending that choices come with perfect information. The subtext isn’t “be bold”; it’s “the map is unreliable anyway.” By making the advice technically impossible, Berra points to a more honest truth: most forks aren’t clean splits, and most people pick a direction and rationalize it later.
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 you come to a fork in the road, take it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-come-to-a-fork-in-the-road-take-it-29064/
Chicago Style
Berra, Yogi. "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-come-to-a-fork-in-the-road-take-it-29064/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-come-to-a-fork-in-the-road-take-it-29064/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









