Kyle ran across these and forwarded them to the family, which was fun, because I have always liked them and have a small collection off the top of my head. Good to see the lad taking an interest. Some are merely goofy, but the heart of a good Yogism is that it is not quite right - over-obvious or foolish, but almost immediately reveals itself as essentially correct, even profound.
Pair up by threes
Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore, it's too crowded
If you don't go to other people's funerals, they won't come to yours
You can observe a lot just by watching. I love, love that one. I have to remind myself of that.
Never answer an anonymous letter.
Just remember, he didn't say all the things he said.
ReplyDelete..or, in his own words, "I never said most of the things I said."
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is: “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” But I understand there is some question that he actually said this.
It's a unique gift, being able to communicate a thought while expressing it inaccurately, in a way that is essential to the communication. Almost all of us know exactly what Yogi meant with each one of these aphorisms.
ReplyDeleteI worked with a guy named Carlo once, in Kazakhstan. It was a joint venture between Kazakhs, Italians, Brits, and Americans. Carlo was funny and kind of hyper, an intelligent engineer, very amiable and social, typically Italian in a comical way. Anyway, we had a celebratory dinner and Carlo made a speech. He had an odd, frenetic way of speaking when he wasn't in native tongue. So, his short speech consisted of a weird mashup of English, Italian and Russian words and grammar structures, all kind of thrown together in his nervousness. It was a hilarious speech, aside from that, but the really funny thing was: everybody in the room knew exactly what he was saying. It's a rare gift.
One of the first I ever heard was this discussion:
ReplyDeleteMr. Berra, do you want your pizza cut into 4 or 6 slices?
Yogi: You better do 4 because I'm not hungry enough to eat 6.