Retirement Quotes

Most popular retirement quotes

No matter who we are, retirement presents us with two choices. Either we can use it to indulge ourselves, or we can use it to make an impact on the lives of others. In other words, the choice we face is between empty self-indulgence and meaningful activity. - Billy Graham quote.
No matter who we are, retirement presents us with two choices. Either we can use it to indulge ourselves, or we can use it to make an impact on the lives of others. In other words, the choice we face is between empty self-indulgence and meaningful activity.
Billy Graham Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well

service old age

Retirement, we understand, is great if you are busy, rich and healthy. But then, under those conditions, work is great too.

work

Retirement should be based on the tread, not the mileage.
Most people spend most of their days doing what they do not want to do in order to earn the right, at times, to do what they may desire.
I'm now at the age where I've got to prove that l'm just as good as I never was. - Rex Harrison quote.
I'm now at the age where I've got to prove that l'm just as good as I never was.
I have made noise enough in the world already, perhaps too much, and am now getting old, and want retirement. - Napoleon quote.
I have made noise enough in the world already, perhaps too much, and am now getting old, and want retirement.
I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit, and to mothball his opinions. - Gen. Omar Bradley quote.
I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit, and to mothball his opinions.
I really think it's better to retire when you still have some snap left in your garters. - Russell B. Long quote.
I really think it's better to retire when you still have some snap left in your garters.
Who knows whether in retirement I shall be tempted to the last infirmity of mundane minds, which is to write a book.
People don't retire. They are retired by others. - Duke Ellington quote.
People don't retire. They are retired by others.
Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time. - Malcolm Muggeridge quote.
Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time.

action

It is sensible to dismiss the old horse in good time, lest, failing at the last, he makes the spectators laugh. - Horace quote.
It is sensible to dismiss the old horse in good time, lest, failing at the last, he makes the spectators laugh.
My voice had a long, nonstop career.  It deserves to be put to bed with quiet and dignity, not yanked out every once in a while to see if it can still do what it used to do.  It can't.

musicians

Retirement is an artificial finish line.
Retired is being tired twice, I've thought
First tired of working, then tired of not.
Richard Armour Going Like Sixty: A Lighthearted Look at the Later Years
Retirement: the world's longest coffee break.
To retire is to die a little.
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 quote.
Retirement...may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap.
Retirement kills more people than hard work ever did. - Malcolm S. Forbes quote.
Retirement kills more people than hard work ever did.
Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to. - Harry Emerson Fosdick quote.
Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to.
Retirement is the filthiest word in the language. - Ernest Hemingway quote.
Retirement is the filthiest word in the language.
When you've been living in the sunshine all your life, you don't want to move into the shade.
Retirement, I feel, means a new adventure in living—not a stopping.
The love of retirement has, in all ages, adhered closely to those minds which have been most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by genius. - Samuel Johnson quote.
The love of retirement has, in all ages, adhered closely to those minds which have been most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by genius.
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.
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?  You hadn't realized it.  And you notice that the sun has set already, the day gone before you knew it—and with that a cold wind blows across the landscape. That's retirement. - Stephen Leacock quote.
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?  You hadn't realized it.  And you notice that the sun has set already, the day gone before you knew it—and with that a cold wind blows across the landscape. That's retirement.
I prefer to leave standing up, like a well-mannered guest at a party.
Whatever resources of good health, character and fortitude you bring to retirement, remember, also, to bring money. - Jane Bryant Quinn quote.
Whatever resources of good health, character and fortitude you bring to retirement, remember, also, to bring money.
The only thing wrong about retirement is that you don't have a job.