The Tennis Partner Quotes

“as a doctor, what makes you unique is that your denial is exquisite, a hundredfold more entrenched than non-physicians. Even now as you sit there, you are in massive denial.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“The very qualities that led them to be doctors—compulsiveness, conscientiousness, control over emotions, delayed gratification, fantasies of the future—predisposed them to use drugs.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“No greater opportunity, responsibility, or obligation can fall to the lot of a human being than to become a physician. In the care of the suffering, he needs technical skill, scientific knowledge, and human understanding. He who uses these with courage, with humility, and with wisdom will provide a unique service for his fellow man and will build an enduring edifice of character within himself. The physician should ask of his destiny no more than this, he should be content with no less.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“It was a sad thing to realize that your childhood dreams weren’t going to come true.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“A doctor has to be more than just a dispenser of cures, but also, to use an old term, a minister of healing.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“Maybe this was how adult friendships were formed, by recognizing and seeking out the archetypes of those we found comfort with in our youth.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“We were, I recognized, aliens traveling in opposite directions: I, the foreigner, looking to blend in, to provide for my children a geography more permanent than mine had ever been. My patients, despite looking the part of hometown boys, despite knowing all its little rituals, were hiding the secret of their sexuality, a secret that would always leave them feeling more alien there than I ever did.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“Don’t confuse shame with guilt,” he said eventually. “Shame says, ‘I am the mistake,’ while guilt says, ‘I made a mistake.’ You made a mistake, but you are not a mistake.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“diminished axillary hair, and a pubic hair distribution (the escutcheon) that looked female: a triangle with the apex pointing down. I said to David, “I think he is underreporting his alcohol consumption.” Chronic alcohol ingestion and the resultant liver damage made the liver less efficient at metabolizing the estrogens that males normally produced.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“David knew of a wonderful bicycle ride that he said we must take. We would follow Route 28, pass through La Union, Chamberino, La Mesa, and eventually reach La Mesilla in New Mexico, a quaint but touristy town, a miniature Santa Fe, a stop on the Camino Real.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“Remember,” he said, grinning, “the one with the fewest errors wins. You overhit.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner

“Wimbledon,”
― Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner