For evidence of the eternal verity of that saying, just check out the resignation this week of Mike Watson MSP.

Mike pleaded guilty to setting alight to curtains at a posh hotel do last year, at a function where, according to The BBC delicate way of putting things, "drink had been taken." In other words, everyone was completely pissed.

If only Mike had got that kind of thing out of his system when he was a student then maybe he wouldn’t be sitting somewhere today watching his political future crumble to dust and trickle through his fingers. In no shape or form am I I saying that setting alight to things is acceptable but the whole thing reeks of one of those actions that seemed like a good idea at the time. As in, it seemed like a good idea for about a nano-second.

If only, that good old standby prop for student-related high jinks had been available - the traffic cone.

At worst, Mike might have been snapped with the cone on his head, confident at the time in the knowledge that NO ONE, EVER HAD EVER DONE THAT BEFORE! The resulting photo wouldn’t have been funny, because, student pranks just aren’t funny. It’s the law.

But, Mike might have hung on to his job. As it is, he’ll have plenty of time to look back to that night, re-running the incident over and over again in his head, endlessly seeking a re-edit that doesn’t end up with flames starting up a set of curtains.

So, there’s a lesson for all you student politicos out there.

Don’t spend all your time going to meetings, laying markers down to secure future political sinecures for when you go out into the real world. It's not healthy to bottle all your youthful exuberance behind a tight-arsed, buttoned up façade.