*Jeter le manche après la cognée = To throw the helve after the hatchet; To give up in despair.
*Après nous le déluge = A short life and a merry one; We need not bother about what will happen after we are gone.
[These words were attributed to Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764) in reply to those who remonstrated with her for her extravagance—“When I am gone, the deluge may come for all I care.” (See Desprez, Essai sur la Marquise de Pompadour, a preface to his Mémoirs de Madame du Hausset.) The same idea occurs in the Greek proverb quoted by Cicero (De Finibus, iii. 19), “Ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί.” Milton suggests Tiberius as saying, “When I die, let the earth be rolled in flames.”—Reason of Church Government, i. 5.]
Araignée
Avoir une araignée dans le (or, au) plafond = To have a bee in one’s bonnet.
Arbre
*Entre l’arbre et l’écorce il ne faut pas mettre le doigt = One must not interfere in other people’s quarrels.
[This proverb has been travestied by Molière, who makes Sganarelle say: “Apprenez que Cicéron dit qu’entre l’arbre et le doigt il ne faut pas mettre l’écorce.”—Le Médecin malgré lui, i. 2.]
L’arbre ne tombe pas au premier coup = Everything requires time and exertion; Rome was not built in a day.