Erich Segal > Quotes

“True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.”
― Erich Segal

“Love means never having to say you're sorry.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“What the hell makes you so smart?" I asked. "I wouldn't go for coffee with you, " she answered. "Listen -- I wouldn't ask you." "That, "she replied "is what makes you stupid.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“I was afraid of being rejected, yes. I was also afraid of being accepted for the wrong reasons.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“And then I did what I had never done in his presence, much less in his arms. I cried.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“The pain of not knowing what to do was exceeded only by that of knowing what I had done.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“What the hell makes you smart?" I asked.
"I wouldn't go for coffee with you."
"Listen - I wouldn't ask you."
"That," she replied, "is what makes you stupid.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“Please, if one of us cries, let both of us cry. But preferably neither of us.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“He had then warned his daughter not to violate the Eleventh Commandment.
"Which one is that?" I asked her.
"Do not bullshit thy father," she said.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“Some were brilliant bordering on genius. Others, genius bordering on madness”
― Erich Segal

“What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.”
― Eric Segal

“Something may have been lost in translation, but it certainly wasn't love”
― Erich Segal, The Class

“We have turned doctors into gods and worship their deity by offering up our bodies and our souls - not to mention our worldly goods.
And yet paradoxically, they are the most vulnerable of human beings. Their suicide rate is eight times the national average. Their percentage of drug addiction is one hundred times higher
And because they are painfully aware that they cannot live up to our expectations, their anguish is unquantifiably intense. They have aptly been called 'wounded healers.' "

~ Barney Livingston, M.D.
(Doctors, 1989)”
― Erich Segal

“Now would you do me a favor?' From somewhere inside me came this devastating assault to make me cry. But I withstood. I would not cry. I would merely indicate to Jennifer - by the affirmative nodding of my head - that I would be happy to do her any favor whatsoever.
'Would you please hold me very tight?' she asked.
I put my hand on her forearm - Christ, so thin - and gave it a little squeeze.
'No, Oliver,' she said, 'really hold me. Next to me.'I was very, very careful - of the tubes and things - as I got onto the bed with her and put my arms around her.
'Thanks, Ollie.'
Those were her last words.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“There was a brief silence. I think I heard snow falling.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“You don't know about falling off cliffs, Prep­pie,' she said. 'You never fell off one in your god­damn life.'

'Yeah,' I said, re­cov­er­ing the power of speech. 'When I met you.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“The ‘equilibrium’ that people see in me is really an illusion. I am as flawed as anyone. It’s only that I seem to have the knack of hiding.”
― Erich Segal, Doctors

“What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“Her handwriting was curious — small sharp little letters with no capitals (who did she think she was, e. e. cummings?).”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.”
― Erich Segal

“although science could pinpoint the exact spot in the brain that ignites rage, they had yet to identify the location that produces love.”
― Erich Segal, Doctors

“What term do you employ when you speak of your progenitor?"
I answered with the term I'd always wanted to employ.
"Sonovabitch."
"To his face?" she asked.
"I never see his face."
"He wears a mask?"
"In a way, yes. Of stone. Of absolute stone.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“Either way I don't come first, which for some stupid reason bothers hell out of me, having grown up with the notion that I always had to be number one. Family heritage, don't you know?”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“Quiet heroism or youthful idealism, or both? What do we know? That life without heroism and idealism is not worth living - or that either can be fatal?”
― Erich Segal, The Class

“True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights.If you hear bells, get your ears checked.”
― Erich Segal

“I think the Peace Corps is a fine thing, don't you?" he said.
"Well," I replied, "it's certainly better than War Corps.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“Part of being a big winner is the ability to be a big loser. There is no paradox involved. It is a distinctly Harvard thing to be able to turn any defeat into victory”
― Erich Segal

“I wanted to keep looking at her because I wanted to never take my eyes from her, but still I had to
lower my eyes, I was so ashamed that even now Jenny was reading my mind so perfectly.
'Listen, that's the only goddamn thing I'm asking, Ollie. Otherwise, I know you'll be okay.' That thing in my gut was stirring again, so I was afraid to even speak the word 'okay.' I just
looked mutely at Jenny.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story

“The explanations for the things we do in life are many and complex. Supposedly mature adults should live by logic, listen to their reason. Think things out before they act.

But maybe they never heard what Dr. London told me one, Freud said that for the little things in life we should react according to our reason. But for really big decisions, we should heed what our unconscious tells us.”
― Erich Segal

“Jenny, if you're so con­vinced I'm a loser, why did you bull­doze me into buy­ing you cof­fee?'

She looked me straight in the eye and smiled.

'I like your body,' she said.”
― Erich Segal, Love Story