never let the weeds get higher than the garden

"Many a man has cherished for years as his hobby some vague shadow of
an idea, too meaningless to be positively false; he has, nevertheless,
passionately loved it, has made it his companion by day and by night,
and has given to it his strength and his life, leaving all other
occupations for its sake, and in short has lived with it and for it,
until it has become, as it were, flesh of his flesh and bone of his
bone; and then he has waked up some bright morning to find it gone,
clean vanished away like the beautiful Melusina of the fable, and the
essence of his life gone with it." - C. S. Pierce, "How to Make Our
Ideas Clear" http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/How_to_Make_Our_Ideas_Clear