Jacob Marley - A Christmas Carol

[memethetrouble]

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

~The description of Jacob Marley, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, one of my favourite stories as a child (even though it's May, don't judge me; it's just what the dog reminded me of).