Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?

When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,

To lock such rascal counters from his friends,

Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts:

Dash him to pieces!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iv. Sc. 3.

But all was false and hollow; though his tongue

Dropp'd manna, and could make the worse appear

The better reason, to perplex and dash

Maturest counsels.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 112.