Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 1. While John Proctor has cheated on his wife with the teenage Abigail Williams, he makes clear to her that they will never be together again. Abby wants to rekindle the relationship, but he wants to move on and tells her to forget that the affair ever happened.