Motivation Quote by Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra’s line lands like a joke you laugh at, then quietly file away as life advice. On the surface it’s classic Berra: a deadpan loop of logic, a social rule reduced to a transactional punchline. Funerals, in this framing, aren’t only about grief; they’re also about attendance, reciprocity, showing up because showing up is what keeps you inside the circle.

That’s the real intent: to smuggle a hard truth about community obligations into something you can repeat at a bar. Berra came out of a clubhouse culture where loyalty isn’t abstract; it’s demonstrated. You ride the bus, you take the heat, you back your teammate. The funeral becomes the final away game: you don’t go because it’s fun, you go because it matters that you were there.

The subtext is slightly darker than the laugh suggests. It acknowledges that even our most solemn rituals have a social economy. People notice who appears when things get ugly, who sits through the long silences, who doesn’t try to outrun discomfort. “Otherwise, they won’t come to yours” isn’t really about your funeral - you won’t be taking attendance - it’s about the life leading up to it. If you want to be held, you have to practice holding other people.

In a celebrity-athlete mouth, this kind of wisdom works because it’s unpretentious. It doesn’t moralize; it shrugs. Then it guilts you into being decent.