9) “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” – Love Story, 1970
These days, complaining about this line is almost as cliché as the line itself. Still, no list of overrated movie quotes would be complete without “love means never having to say you’re sorry,” from the 1970 romantic melodrama Love Story.
The movie stars Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw as young lovers Oliver and Jenny, who meet and fall in love at Harvard University. The now iconic line, which ranks at number 13 on AFI’s 100 Movie Quote list, is spoken twice in the film by both O’Neal and MacGraw.
The problem with this line is that, to quote Lisa Simpson, “No it doesn’t!” This patently stupid piece of dialogue has been mocked more times than I can count. Fortunately, I don’t have to, because Wikipedia devoted a whole article to doing just that.
The Wikipedia page on “love means never having to say you’re sorry” documents all the parodies of this line that can be found in pop culture, including my personal favorite: Peter Bogdanovich’s classic 1972 screwball comedy What’s Up Doc?, in which Barbara Streisand attempts to use the line on Love Story star Ryan O’Neal himself. He responds by noting, “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
