Samuel Johnson's health has been a focus of the biographical and critical analysis of his life. His medical history was well documented by Johnson and his friends, and those writings have allowed later critics and doctors to infer diagnoses of conditions that were unknown in Johnson's day.
His health and conditions had "damaging effects on Johnson's personal and professional lives" likely causing him to lose opportunities to teach at prominent schools, while leading him "towards the invisible occupation of authorship".
Read more about Samuel Johnson's Health: Posthumous Diagnosis, Literary References
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“Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Long live the king!”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Samuel 10:24.
“A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation—a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)