“After us, the deluge. I care not what happens when I am dead and gone.”
Said while the French financial system was on the verge of collapse, as quoted in Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) by E. Cobham Brewer. Brewer states that this was sometimes attributed to the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, but that he was probably simply quoting Madame de Pompadour.
Original
Après nous, le déluge.
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Madame de Pompadour 2
chief mistress of Louis XV of France 1721–1764Related quotes
“I am not glad she is dead, but I am not sorry she is gone.”
Source: Orphan Train
“I don't know what happens when I die, and I don't care.”
Interview with The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/bill-maher-on-masturbation-and-national-security/283266/ (24 January 2014)
“When I am dead, I charge you to mingle our ashes and bury us together.”
Source: The Song of Achilles
“What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?”
“After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months.”
Statement to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, referring to his son, Edward, Prince of Wales
Quoted in Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, Baldwin (1969) ch.34
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/tmlnp/louis_ck_reddit/
“When the young die I am reminded of a strong flame extinguished by a torrent; but when old men die it is as if a fire had gone out without the use of force and of its own accord, after the fuel had been consumed”
Itaque adulescentes mihi mori sic videntur, ut cum aquae multitudine flammae vis opprimitur, senes autem sic, ut cum sua sponte nulla adhibita vi consumptus ignis exstinguitur; et quasi poma ex arboribus, cruda si sunt, vix evelluntur, si matura et cocta, decidunt, sic vitam adulescentibus vis aufert, senibus maturitas; quae quidem mihi tam iucunda est, ut, quo propius ad mortem accedam, quasi terram videre videar aliquandoque in portum ex longa navigatione esse venturus.
section 71 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0039%3Asection%3D71
Cato Maior de Senectute – On Old Age (44 BC)
Context: When the young die I am reminded of a strong flame extinguished by a torrent; but when old men die it is as if a fire had gone out without the use of force and of its own accord, after the fuel had been consumed; and, just as apples when they are green are with difficulty plucked from the tree, but when ripe and mellow fall of themselves, so, with the young, death comes as a result of force, while with the old it is the result of ripeness. To me, indeed, the thought of this "ripeness" for death is so pleasant, that the nearer I approach death the more I feel like one who is in sight of land at last and is about to anchor in his home port after a long voyage.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
Variant: I am not what happens to me. I choose who I become.