The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it

-- Omar Khayyam (trans E Fitzgerald.)

My father used to have these words on a card pinned to his writing desk. As a child I read them over and over, enjoying the cadence, not really pondering much on the meaning. Oh, how terribly sad and true these words are to me now.