“Trouble came only where I expected it, from One-Eye, whose motto is that anything not nailed down is his and anything he can pry loose isn’t nailed down.”

Source: Sourcery

Monster (2004)

You Oughta Know
Jagged Little Pill (1995)

Speech about Declaration of Independence (1776)

Alternate version: If you don't have a hammer, you don't want anything to look like a nail.
Of Paradise and Power, p. 26
According to Kagan, this is a variation of the proverb "When you have a hammer, all problems start to look like nails." (p. 25 of the same book)

Unidentified press conference, 1968
Featured in Pat Paulsen for President (1968), part 2 of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbP0ufyax5A&feature=relmfu, 07:20 ff (16:20 ff in full program)
Note: Despite the similarity, this would appear not to be a parody of Vice President Spiro Agnew's "nattering nabobs of negativism", which is from a September 11, 1970 speech.
Context: Many political experts have told me that nobody will vote for me because America is not ready for such decisive and dynamic leadership. They tell me these things, and I say nay to the negative nincompoops who never nourished the nihilistic nerve to name a novice to nail down the nomination.

Source: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories

The Happiest Heart