Then Jael Heber'swifetook anail ofthetent, and took an hammer inher hand, and went softly untohimand smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Judges 4:21.

He asked for water, and she brought him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead. The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice,Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

-Bible (Old Testament)
Judges 5:25^8.

A little neglect may breed mischief†for want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost.

-Franklin, Benjamin
  Poor Richard's  Almanack, preface.

He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail than any of his court, which alone is enough to strike anawe intothe beholders.

-Swift,Jonathan
  Of the Emperor. Gulliver'sTravels,'AVoyage to Lilliput', ch.2.