Daily Inspiration Quote by Erich Segal

A lesser line would treat translation as a tragic barrier; Segal turns it into a comedic alibi and then pulls the rug out. “Something may have been lost in translation” is the world’s most polite way of saying “you misunderstood me.” It’s a cliché built for excuses, for smoothing over cross-cultural friction, for letting everyone save face. Segal borrows that ready-made cover, then snaps it into a romantic punchline: whatever got garbled, “it certainly wasn’t love.”

The intent is reassurance with bite. The speaker isn’t denying miscommunication; they’re conceding it, even inviting the possibility that details, phrasing, or etiquette didn’t survive the journey between two people. That concession makes the second clause land harder. Love, in this framing, is not a fragile sentiment dependent on perfect phrasing. It’s the one thing stubborn enough to arrive intact.

Subtext: the relationship is messy, possibly multilingual, possibly just emotionally bilingual. They may not share the same vocabulary for commitment, apology, or desire. Segal’s trick is to make that mismatch feel survivable, even charming, by elevating love above the logistics of being understood.

Context matters because Segal’s work (and the era that canonized him) prized big feelings expressed in clean, quotable sentences. This line is engineered to be remembered: the balanced clauses, the pivot on “but,” the firm certainty of “certainly.” It’s romantic, yes, but also savvy about how romance actually plays out: not as perfect comprehension, but as a decision to treat the misfires as secondary to what keeps returning, unmistakably, as love.