Retirement Quotations

Here are some reflections on retirement. This collection of retirement quotes includes sayings from some of the great minds of the past and present. Many are humorous, some inspirational.

R etire, now it is your time to:
e xperience all that life has to offer,
t ake time to smell the roses,
i nvestigate your hobbies,
r evitalize your dreams, and,
e mbark on a new way of life!
— Catherine Pulsifer

“Retire from work, but not from life.”  — M.K. Soni

“Sooner or later I’m going to die, but I’m not going to retire.” — Margaret Mead

“Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty five I still had pimples.” — George Burns

“Retire? I’m going to stay in show business until I’m the only one left.” — George F. Burns

“As in all successful ventures, the foundation of a good retirement is planning.” — Earl Nightingale

“When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent importance, his colleagues generally present him with a watch.” — R.C. Sherriff

“Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.” — Louis Armstrong

“Preparation for old age should begin not later than one’s teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.” — Arthur E. Morgan

“The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income.” — George Foreman

“The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.”
— Abe Lemons

“We have no porch, no rocking chair — and no time. My biggest need is a calendar because there are so many things to do. Now I encourage people to retire — theyounger the better.” — Maurice Musholt

“Retirement must be wonderful. I mean, you can only suck in your stomach for so long.” — Burt Reynolds

“Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire.” — Samuel Johnson

“Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.” — Harry Emerson Fosdick

“Waiting until your retirement party is too late to start planning your (retirement) portfolio.” — Richard Wastcoat

“The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.” — Henry David Thoreau

“When a man retires, his wife gets twice the husband but only half the income.” — Chi Chi Rodriguez

“Retirement can be a great joy if you can figure out how to spend time without spending money.” — Unknown

“In retirement, only money and symptoms are consequential.” — Mason Cooley

“Retirement itself is the best gift. No gold watch could ever top it.” — Abigail Charleson

“Retirement, when every day is Saturday! “— Unknown

“The key to retirement is to find joy in the little things.” — Susan Miller

“When I retire I’m going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.” — Richard Milhouse Nixon

“What will I do with myself when I retire? When I quit my job, I do not want to quit living. Can I possibly be of use when retirement day comes, or will I just be taking up space?” — J. A. West

“I’m not in retirement. I just don’t want to work so much, and I don’t get that many offers any more.” — Max von Sydow

“Retirement is a time to make the inner journey and come face to face with your flaws, failures, prejudices, and all the factors that generate thoughts of unhappiness. Retirement is not a time to sleep, but a time to awaken to the beauty of the world around you and the joy that comes when you cast out all the negative elements that cause confusion and turmoil in your mind and allow serenity to prevail.” — Howard Salzman

“When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking.” — Gail Sheehy

“In this country . . . men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.” — Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

“A retired husband is often a wife’s full-time job.” — Ella Harris

“Age-based retirement arbitrarily severs productive persons from their livelihood, squanders their talents, scars their health, strains an already overburdened Social Security system, and drives many elderly people into poverty and despair. Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism.” — Norman Vincent Peale

“The great thing about show business is that there’s no mandatory retirement age.” — Scott Bakula

“The only way to avoid being miserable (in retirement) is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.” — George Bernard Shaw

“I’m not just retiring from the company, I’m also retiring from my stress, my commute, my alarm clock, and my iron.” — Hartman Jule

“Retirement has been a discovery of beauty for me. I never had the time before to notice the beauty of my grandkids, my wife, the tree outside my very own front door. And, the beauty of time itself.” — Hartman Jule

I”n retirement, I look for days off from my days off.” — Mason Cooley

“There’s one thing I always wanted to do before I quit , retire!” — Groucho Marx

“There are an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job” — Peter Drucker

“There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working.” — Robert Half

“I only work every couple of years. I go into retirement between films.” — Paul Hogan

“Retirement: No Job, No Stress, No Pay!” — Unknown

“People may live as much retired from the world as they like, but sooner or later they find themselves debtor or creditor to some one.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Retirement to me does not mean nothing to do but the realization of the decisions I made in the past. That I made in my life.” — Jack Bowman

“Retirement is wonderful. It’s doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it.” — Gene Perret

“Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.” — Jonathan Clements

“Retirement is a one-way trip to insignificance.” — Mason Cooley

“Retired is being twice tired, I’ve thought First tired of working, Then tired of not.” — Richard Armour

“Retirement without the love of letters is a living burial.”  — Seneca

“I’ve been attending lots of seminars in my retirement.  They’re called naps.”  — Merri Brownworth

“When you retire, you switch bosses – from the one who hired you to the one who married you.”  — Gene Perret

“Age is only a number, a cipher for the records.  A man can’t retire his experience.  He must use it.”  — Bernard Baruch

“A gold watch is the most appropriate gift for retirement, as its recipients have given up so many of their golden hours in a lifetime of service.”  — Harry Mahtar

“O, blest retirement! friend to life’s decline – How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these, A youth of labor with an age of ease!” — Oliver Goldsmith

“Retirement is the ugliest word in the language.”  — Ernest Hemingway

“In my retirement I go for a short swim at least once or twice every day.  It’s either that or buy a new golf ball.”  — Gene Perret

“Retirement kills more people than hard work ever did.”  — Malcolm Forbes

“Retirement: Twice the husband, half the money! “— Unknown

“Retirement:  That’s when you return from work one day and say, “Hi, Honey, I’m home – forever.””  — Gene Perret

“I work harder now that I have retired from corporate life, than when I actually worked, but I love it.” — Catherine Pulsifer

“Planning to retire? Before you do find your hidden passion,  do the thing that you have always wanted to do.”
— Catherine Pulsifer

“For retirement brings repose, and repose allows a kindly judgment of all things.” — John Sharp Williams

“Retirement may be an ending, a closing, but it is also a new beginning.” — Catherine Pulsifer

“One of the problems of retirement is that it gives you more time to read about the problems of retirement.” — Unknown

“I have now the gloomy prospect of retiring from office loaded with serious debts, which will materially affect the tranquility of my retirement.” — Thomas Jefferson

“The worst thing about retirement is having to drink coffee on your own time.” — Unknown

“The key to a happy retirement is to have enough money to live on, but not enough to worry about.” — Unknown

“Have you ever been out for a late autumn walk in the closing part of the afternoon, and suddenly looked up to realize that the leaves have practically all gone? And the sun has set and the day gone before you knew it — and with that a cold wind blows across the landscape? That’s retirement.” — Stephen Leacock

“No longer having to punch a time clock is my definition of retirement. That way I could do what I want — when I want — anytime I want.” — Brooky Brown

“I don’t even think about a retirement program because I’m working for the Lord, for the Almighty. And even thought the Lord’s pay isn’t very high, his retirement program is, you might say, out of this world.” — George Foreman

“I’m retired — goodbye tension, hello pension!”  — Unknown

“Men and women approaching retirement age should be recycled for public service work, and their companies should foot the bill. We can no longer afford to scrap-pile people.” — Maggie Kuhn

“There is a whole new kind of life ahead, full of experiences just waiting to happen. Some call it “retirement.” I call it bliss.” — Betty Sullivan

“Enjoy every retirement day as if it was your last and one day you will be right about it. — Unknown wise person   I think my idea of retirement might be to one day work a 40-hour week.”  — Vince McMahon

“The company gave me an aptitude test and I found out the best work I was best suited for was retirement.”
— Unknown

“To retire is the beginning of death.” — Pablo Casals

“In this country . . . men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.” — Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

“I like retirement life. It’s something to do when no one wants you to work anymore. “— Unknown

“The thing to do is to make so much money that you don’t have to work after the age of twenty-seven. In case this is impractical, stop working at the earliest moment, even if it is a quarter past eleven in the morning of the day when you find you have enough money.” — Robert Benchley

“A lot of our friends complain about their retirement. We tell ’emto get a life.” — Larry Laser

“When I lose my marbles which is never, when I lose my energy, I travel the world today for Viacom, China, Dubai, Kuwit. When that happens, I’ll know enough to retire, but that’s never gonna happen. I’m here for forever. — Sumner Redstone

“Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials — much to live on and much to live for.” — Unknown

“I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife. But the problems are such that for anybody with a conscience who can use whatever influence he may have to try to bring about peace, it’s difficult to say no.” — Nelson Mandela

“My retirement plan is to find a shopping cart with good snow tires.” — Patty Doyle

“Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap.” — Simone de Beauvoir

“Retirement to me does not mean nothing to do but the realization of the decisions I made in the past. That I made in my life.” — Jack Bowman

“Retirement will become evident to me at the time.” — Peter Brock

“When is the right age to retire? When you dread going to work.” — Mary Bright

“The retirement system that is in place for members of Congress and other federal workers features what is known as the Federal Employment Retirement Plan.” — Virgil Goode

“Retirement is waking up in the morning with nothing to do and by bedtime having done only half of it.”
— Unknown

“Retirement is not in this company’s vocabulary. If you are well and able to work, you can stay at the company and that’s what I plan to do.” — John H. Johnson

“I tell people retirement isn’t what you think. You are going to sit around and waste your life, you can only golf so much. To stay young, you have to stay in the mix.” — Ron Rice