Fatherhood Quote by Erich Segal

Segal lands this like a well-timed needle: he borrows the solemn architecture of scripture and swaps in a household rule so blunt it practically whistles. “Eleventh Commandment” is the joke’s trapdoor. It invites the reader to expect piety, tradition, some inherited moral gravity. Instead, we get a daughter’s deadpan translation of family power dynamics into a single, modern taboo: don’t insult Dad’s intelligence.

The line works because “bullshit” isn’t just profanity; it’s a diagnostic. It names a specific kind of dishonesty: the performative, self-serving spin people use when they want credit without accountability. By framing the father’s warning as a commandment, Segal hints at the theatrical self-importance of parents who want their authority to feel cosmic. The daughter’s response punctures that pomposity while also confirming it. She’s casual, but she’s not free; she’s fluent in the rules. The humor comes with an implicit admission that in this family, truth is less about ethics than about hierarchy: you can lie, presumably, just not upward.

There’s also a generational signature here. The father reaches for an old-language metaphor (commandments) to enforce control; the daughter answers in the lingua franca of modern candor. Segal is capturing a cultural pivot where respect stops meaning obedience and starts meaning not pretending. The exchange is affectionate, but it’s also a tiny portrait of how intimacy gets policed: love, in this house, includes surveillance.