Retirement means different things to different people. Some people view it as all about freedom after having worked hard for years and some worry about what will be coming next. Some can’t
Just by looking at these retirement quotes, you will find all the feelings that can be experienced about this major life transition.
In this article, you will read 85+ retirement quotes from famous readers, comedians, writers and thinkers.
Inspirational Retirement Quotes
Here are some retirement quotes you can find as inspirational and motivating:
- “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” – Fred Rogers
- “Retirement is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the open highway.” – Unknown
- “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
- “For many, retirement is a time for personal growth, which becomes the path to greater freedom.” – Robert Delamontague
- “Retirement is the only time in your life when time no longer equals money.” – Unknown
- “Retire from your job, but never retire your mind.” – Unknown
- “And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
- “The key to retirement is to find joy in the little things.” – Susan Miller
- “Retire from work, but not from life.” – M.K. Soni
- “Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick
- “In retirement, I look for days off from my days off.” – Mason Cooley
- “Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials—much to live on and much to live for.” – Unknown
- “I see retirement as just another of these reinventions, another chance to do new things and be a new version of myself.” – Walt Mossberg
- “Living each day as if it were your last doesn’t mean your last day of retirement on a remote island. It means to live fully, authentically and spontaneously with nothing being held back.” – Jack Canfield
Funny Retirement Quotes
- “Retirement is wonderful. It’s doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it.” – Gene Perret
- “The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does.” – Unknown
- “A retired husband is often a wife’s full-time job.” – Ella Harris
- “When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent importance, his colleagues generally present him with a watch.” – R.C. Sheriff
- “Retirement is not in my vocabulary. They aren’t going to get rid of me that way.” – Betty White
- “He who laughs last at the boss’s jokes probably isn’t far from retirement.” – Unknown
- “Retirement: That’s when you return from work one day and say, ‘Hi, Honey, I’m home—forever.'” – Gene Perret
- “I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day.” – Gene Perret
- “Retirement: It’s nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along with less cheese.” – Gene Perret
- “My father calls acting ‘a state of permanent retirement with short spurts of work.'” – Chris Pine
- “What do you call a person who is happy on a Monday? Retired.” – Unknown
- “When a man retires, his wife gets twice as much husband for half as much money.” – Chi Chi Rodriguez
- “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” – Will Rogers
- “My retirement plan is to get thrown into a minimum security prison in Hawaii.” – Julius Sharpe
- “I can’t wait to retire so I can get up at 6 o’clock in the morning and go drive around really slow and make everybody late for work.” – Unknown
Retirement Quotes About Age
- “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – Mark Twain
- “You have to put off being young until you can retire.” – Unknown
- “Don’t act your age in retirement. Act like the inner young person you have always been.” – J. A. West
- “Retirement: When you stop lying about your age and start lying around the house.” – Unknown
- “My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.” – Jerry Seinfeld
- “Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.” – George Burns
- “You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.” – George Burns
- “Age is just a number, but retirement is one of the greatest gifts to mankind.” – Unknown
- “How do you know it’s time to retire? It’s when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.” – Unknown
- “When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right to cooking.” – Gail Sheehy
- “Retirement is like a software update for your life. Everything runs smoother.” – Unknown
- “Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long life.” – Kitty O’Neill Collins
- “Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.” – Albert Einstein
Retirement Quotes For Friends and Coworkers
- “If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “There’s never enough time to do all the things you want.” – Bill Watterson
- “Say goodbye to tension and hello to your pension.” – Unknown
- “Retirement, a time to enjoy all the things you never had time to do when you worked.” – Catherine Pulsifer
- “Retirement: No job, no stress, no pay!” – Unknown
- “Retirement isn’t the end of the road, but just a turn in the road.” – Unknown
- “The best part about being retired is never having to request time off.” – Unknown
- “Retirement: World’s longest coffee break.” – Unknown
- “Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it to the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.” – Jonathan Clements
- “You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
- “It’s time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad, and I’d much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure.” – Ernie Harwell
- “Stay young at heart, kind in spirit, and enjoy retirement living.” – Danielle Duckery
- “I always likened retirement to falling off a cliff, and then you have to kind of brush yourself off.” – Steve Young
- “Count your age by friends, not years.” – John Lennon
Quotes For Those Who Don’t Want To Retire
Some people never want to stop working. These quotes are from those who couldn’t imagine retirement or tried it and came back.
- “I need to retire from retirement.” – Sandra Day O’Connor
- “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” – Vince Lombardi
- “The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” – Abe Lemons
- “We spend our lives on the run: we get up by the clock, eat and sleep by the clock, get up again, go to work—and then we retire. And what do they give us? A bloody clock!” – Dave Allen
- “I find the biggest trouble with having nothing to do is you can’t tell when you are done.” – Unknown
- “I will not retire while I’ve still got my legs and my make-up box.” – Bette Davis
- “I wanted to have more time to play and reflect, but I find retirement more stressful than having a nice, steady job because I have to make decisions about where I want to be.” – Walter Cronkite
- “I’m always announcing my retirement. I’m still not retired.” – Dick Van Dyke
- “Choose a work that you love and you won’t have to work another day.” – Confucius
- “Sometimes it’s hard to tell if retirement is a reward for a lifetime of hard work or a punishment.” – Terri Guillemets
- “Well, I didn’t grow up with that word ‘retirement’ as part of my consciousness. I didn’t grow up with professionals that retired.” – Ruby Dee
- “You can never have the comeback if you don’t have the retirement.” – Chael Sonnen
- “Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill
- “People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they reach retirement age seem very admirable to me.” – Helen Hayes
- “Retirement is the ugliest word in the language.” – Ernest Hemingway
Quotes For Those Ready To Retire
For those counting down the days, these quotes celebrate the freedom that comes with finally leaving work behind.
- “A lot of our friends complain about their retirement. We tell ’em to get a life.” – Larry Laser
- “Retirement means doing whatever I want to do. It means choice.” – Dianne Nahirny
- “Working people have a lot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work.” – Clarence Darrow
- “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
- “I have never liked working. To me a job is an invasion of privacy.” – Danny McGoorty
- “There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working.” – Robert Half
- “Retirement is a blank sheet of paper. It is a chance to redesign your life into something new and different.” – Patrick Foley
- “Retirement gives you the time literally to recreate yourself through a sport, game or hobby that you always wanted to try.” – Steven Price
- “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” – Jim Rohn
- “Retirement is when having a good time is your only job.” – Unknown
- “A man is known by the company that keeps him on after retirement age.” – Unknown
- “Age is only a number, a cipher for the records. A man can’t retire his experience. He must use it.” – Bernard Baruch
- “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch
- “Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.” – Jack Welch
- “Control your own destiny or someone else will.” – Jack Welch
Making the Most of Your Retirement Years
With these retirement quotes, you should remind yourself that after work ends, life still continues. There are people that at this stage are excited or nervous about retirement, but the best thing you can do is to find new passions, create new experiences and spend as much time with your loved ones.
Retirement is the beginning of your new life’s chapter. So enjoy it as much as you can!