Skip to main content

Motivation Quote by Magic Johnson

"The important thing is this Just because I'm doing well doesn't mean that they're going to do well if they get HIV. A lot of people have died since I have announced. This disease is not going anywhere"

About this Quote

Success stories are comforting, and Magic Johnson refuses to let his become a lullaby. The line is doing two jobs at once: puncturing the myth of the “good patient” and warning against the celebrity-shaped distortion of risk. When he says, “Just because I’m doing well doesn’t mean that they’re going to do well,” he’s naming what polite optimism often hides: his outcome is not the median outcome. It’s a statistical outlier boosted by wealth, early access to cutting-edge care, elite medical oversight, and the ability to reorder life around treatment. He’s also pushing back on the subtle moralizing that creeps into public health narratives, where survival can get misread as virtue.

The second sentence lands like a cold ledger. “A lot of people have died since I have announced” is a direct rebuke to the media’s tendency to treat an illness as a story arc with a heroic protagonist. His disclosure didn’t pause the epidemic; it just gave it a famous face. In the early 1990s, HIV/AIDS was still heavily stigmatized, unevenly treated, and politically neglected. Johnson’s celebrity brought attention, but attention isn’t infrastructure.

“This disease is not going anywhere” is less despair than discipline: a demand to stay unsentimental. He’s anchoring the conversation in durability, not drama - a reminder that progress is real but fragile, and that prevention, funding, and care have to outlast headlines and exceptional individuals.

Quote Details

TopicHealth
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Johnson, Magic. (2026, January 16). The important thing is this Just because I'm doing well doesn't mean that they're going to do well if they get HIV. A lot of people have died since I have announced. This disease is not going anywhere. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-is-this-just-because-im-doing-122275/

Chicago Style
Johnson, Magic. "The important thing is this Just because I'm doing well doesn't mean that they're going to do well if they get HIV. A lot of people have died since I have announced. This disease is not going anywhere." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-is-this-just-because-im-doing-122275/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The important thing is this Just because I'm doing well doesn't mean that they're going to do well if they get HIV. A lot of people have died since I have announced. This disease is not going anywhere." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-is-this-just-because-im-doing-122275/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Magic Add to List
Magic Johnson quote on HIV inequality and hope
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Magic Johnson

Magic Johnson (born August 14, 1959) is a Athlete from USA.

15 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes