“He told me, that he had twelve or fourteen times
attempted to keep a
journal of his life, but never could
persevere. He advised me to do it. ‘The
great thing to be recorded, (said he,) is the
state of your own
mind; and you should
write down every thing that you
remember, for you cannot
judge at first what is
good or
bad; and write
immediately while the
impression is fresh, for it will not be the same a
week afterwards.’”
Boswell’s Life of Johnson (paperback, Oxford University Press, 1980 based on revised edition of 1970, ed. R. W. Chapman), p. 513.