Last Updated on: 31st January 2023, 03:35 am

Being retired myself, I have attended a lot of retirement functions and have often had to search for the right message to best convey happy retirement wishes. I have often been asked to say a few words, share retirement congratulations or make a speech and have found myself stuck for the right words.


Often, I would find myself looking for quotes about retirement for retirement card messages, a inspiration or to help make a joke. Yes, some of these quotes about retirement are funny, but others are inspirational or thoughtful, while others simply convey retirement sentiments in a short and concise way.

So whether you are looking for funny retirement messages, retirement messages for your boss or coworker, short retirement wishes, or even retirement wishes for a close friend, we’ve got you covered.

I will be sure to add to this list as I come across other retirement quotes or messages. A lot of these sayings could be used for cards, as part of your retirement speech or as part of a simple retirement message to a retiring colleague who really isn’t quite ready to go yet.

Please let me know in the comments if you have any other quotes about retirement or happy retirement wishes to add to the list.

I also added some images to help give a new retiree some travel inspiration to help people’s retirement wishes come true. Maybe they would like it if you shared this page with them!

---

Quotes About Retirement

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

“Retirement means getting another job is optional.” – Jonathan Look, Jr.

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” – Sophia Loren

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” – Leonardo da Vinci

Retirement is the only time when one can enjoy all the good things life has to offer without the stress of having a job – Author Unknown

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Retire the word ‘retirement’ from your vocabulary. Look it up: it means to ‘withdraw’ or ‘retreat.’ Words can shape reality, and it’s time for this one to go. Doesn’t ‘renaissance’ or ‘graduation’ or ‘transition’ better describe your postcareer life?” – Marika Stone

“As for me, except for an occasional heart attack, I feel as young as I ever did.” – Robert Benchley

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” – Bill Waterson, Calvin & Hobbes

“Retirement gives you the time literally to recreate yourself through a sport, game, or hobby that you always wanted to try or that you haven’t done in years.” – Steven D. Price

The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it. –
Voltaire

“The Best thing about retirement is not having to wear pants!” – Mark Hewer

“The Key to a Happy retirement, is having something you are passionate about to retire to” – Jonathan Look, Jr.

“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away!” – Dr. Seuss

“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

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.“ – Mark Twain

“Retirement is the only thing that will make you realize how you wasted all these years trying to be mature when you can get back to being a child at the end of it all.” – Unknown

“I see retirement as just another of these reinventions, another chance to do new things and be a new version of myself.” – Walter Mossberg

“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

“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

“Retirement’s the most wonderful thing. I get to enjoy all the things I never stopped to notice on the way up. After an extraordinary life, it’s time to enjoy my retirement.” – Patrick Macnee

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

“It is better to live rich than to die rich.” – Samuel Johnson

“You have to put off being young until you can retire.” – Author Unknown

“Retirement is not a life without purpose; it is the on-going purpose that provides meaningfulness.” – Robert Rivers

“Retirement is …. a time to experience a fulfilling life derived from many enjoyable and rewarding activities.” – Ernie J. Zelinski, The Joy of Not Working

“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” – George Bernard Shaw

You May Also Like These Retirement Posts

See also:

• Taking a Leap of Faith
• The Things You Own End Up Owning You Essay
• Essentials Required for Retiring Overseas
• Why No-one Cares About Your Travels 
• Non Financial Tricks For A Happy Retirement 
• When Enough Is Enough
• The Good Enough Retirement 
• Don’t Call Me An Expat
• Life Is Either A Daring Adventure Or Nothing At All 
• Selfishness
• 21 Hard Lessons Learned About Retirement
• Things To Do In Retirement If You’re Bored 
• Why I Began Living a Minimalist Lifestyle for Retirement
• Yes We Are Responsible 
• For A Longer Life Try Early Retirement 
• Magic Of Leaving Your Comfort Zones
• For a Happy Retirement the Riskiest Risk is Avoiding Risks
• My Biggest Fear and How I Overcame It
• When is the best time to retire 
• 4 Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Retired 
• Eight Things I Ask Myself Before Buying
• What is The Cost to Retire Overseas
• Is Your Vacation Ruining The Planet? 
• Excuses to Deny Your Travel Dreams 

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” – Vince Lombardi

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – Mark Twain

“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

“Age is only a number, a cipher for the records. A man can’t retire his experience. He must use it. Experience achieves more with less energy and time.” – Bernard Baruch

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

“I found out retirement means playing golf, or I don’t know what the hell it means. But to me, retirement means doing what you have fun doing.” – Dick Van Dyke

“Retirement: think of it as a six month holiday, but twice a year.” – Author Unknown

“The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does.” – Author Unknown

“We work all our lives so we can retire – so we can do what we want with our time – and the way we define or spend our time defines who we are and what we value.” – Bruce Linton, Fatherhood: The Journey from Man to Dad

“The joy of retirement comes in those everyday pursuits that embrace the joy of life; to experience daily the freedom to invest one’s life-long knowledge for the betterment of others; and, to allocate time to pursuits that only received, in years of working, a fleeting moment.” – Byron Pulsifer

“As your life changes, it takes time to recalibrate, to find your values again. You might also find that retirement is the time when you stretch out and find your potential.” – Sid Miramontes, Retirement: Your New Beginning

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

“A thriving new beginning can be and should be a time for amazing engagement, growth, connections, contributions, and amazing possibilities.” – Lee M. Brower

“Working people have a lot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work.” – Clarence Darrow

“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” – Will Rogers

“For many, retirement is a time for personal growth, which becomes the path to greater freedom.” – Robert Delamontague

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

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

“Maybe the word ‘retirement’ makes you think of old age, boredom and laziness, but I’d rather have you try to think of it as the freedom to do what you want, freedom to be as active as you’d like, and even freedom to work the job that you like – to be in a place where money doesn’t dictate your choices.” – Rex Dalen

“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” – Fred Rogers

“Don’t act your age in retirement. Act like the inner young person you have always been.” – J. A. West

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. – Winston Churchill

“Retirement is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the open highway.” – Author 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

“Retirement means doing whatever I want to do. It means choice.” —Dianne Nahirny

“Stay young at heart, kind in spirit, and enjoy retirement living.” —Danielle Duckery

“Funny thing about retirement, it kills more people than work ever did.” – Malcolm Forbes

“When some people retire, it’s going to be hard to be able to tell the difference.” – Virginia Graham

“Retirement, a time to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, where you want to do it and how you want to do it,” – Catherine Pulsifer

“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: When you stop lying about your age and start lying around the house.” – Unknown

“I have never liked working. To me a job is an invasion of privacy.” – Danny McGoorty

“I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day.” – Gene Perret

“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

“Retirement: The pay sucks but the hours are great.” – Unknown

“It’s a good, quiet retirement. Most days I do nothing, but it takes me all day to do it.” – Barry Wilkin

“Retirement: World’s longest coffee break.” – Unknown

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

You know you’re ready to retire when you think “getting lucky” means finding your car in the parking lot. – Unknown

“My retirement plan is to get thrown into a minimum security prison in Hawaii.” – Julius Sharpe

“You’re retired – goodbye tension, hello pension!” – Unknown

“Retirement: It’s nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along with less cheese.” – Gene Perret

“There is no sense in being pessimistic about your retirement. It wouldn’t work anyway.” – Unknown

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

“Fear no more the heat o the sun, nor the furious winter’s rages. Thou thy worldly task hast done, home art gone and taken thy wages.” – William Shakespeare

“When you ‘retire,’ you’re on your own. No longer is most of your life ahead. You don’t have forever to fulfill promises. But there’s also good news: Now, going forward, can be the most important part of your life, when it all comes together – your experience, wisdom, and successes.” – Michael Jeans

“You might retire from a job, but never retire from making contributions. Indeed, life is about contribution, not accumulation.” – Hyrum W. Smith

“Retire the word ‘retirement’ from your vocabulary. Look it up: it means to ‘withdraw’ or ‘retreat.’ Words can shape reality, and it’s time for this one to go. Doesn’t ‘renaissance’ or ‘graduation’ or ‘transition’ better describe your post-career life?” – Marika Stone

“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

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

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

“Retirement is a blank sheet of paper. It is a chance to redesign your life into something new and different.” – Patrick Foley

“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – J. Lubbock

“You can retire, but you can’t retire from being great!” – Unknown

“Retirement is when having a good time is your only job.” – Unknown

“And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” – The Shawshank Redemption

“Retirement is when you stop living at work and start working at living.” – Unknown

“Happy days are here at last, the days of nine to five are past, you’ve worked your life and paid your dues, now you can do just what you choose!” – Unknown

“Time spent in laughter when one is retired is well invested.” – Unknown

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

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

“Life starts at retirement.” – Unknown

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

“Retirement brings the ball to your court, where you make the rules.” – Unknown

“Retiring from work does not mean retiring from life! It is just the beginning not the end!” – Unknown

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

“What do you call someone who’s happy on Mondays? Retired!” – Unknown

“Retirement is when you start working at living and quit living at work.” – Unknown

“Retirement is a time to enjoy what you have been working so hard for.” – Unknown

“The challenge to retirement is spending more time without spending more money.” – Unknown

“All these years you may have been the boss, but now all that goes out for a toss. Retirement marks the end of your reigning thunder, because without your job title you’re no more than a mere commoner” – Unknown

“Until now you may have thought that life’s biggest battles are fought in the boardroom… but now as you retire and spend more time at home, you’ll realize that they’re actually fought in the kitchen.” – Unknown

“We have had many good times, and now as you retire you will make new memories.” – Unknown

“Enjoy every day and don’t forget us!, unfortunately we will be here for awhile!” – Kate Summers

Throughout your career you have been someone’s boss. Retirement is your chance to be your own.” –  Unknown

“Retirement is when you switch bosses from the one who hired you to the one who married you.” – Gene Perret

“Someone once said, There are two good reasons to be a teacher — July and August. In fact, there are three good reasons to be a teacher. The third reason is retirement.” – Unknown

 “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” — A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Old teachers never die; they just grade away” – Anonymous

 “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

“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

 “Some of the best memories are made in flip flops.” — Kellie Elmore

“When a man retires, his wife gets twice as much husband for half as much money.” — Chi Chi Rodriguez

 “In your retirement years never drink coffee at lunch; it will keep you aware in the afternoon.” — Unknown

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

“Instead of saving for someone else’s college education, I’m currently saving for a luxury retirement community replete with golf carts and handsome young male nurses who love butterscotch.” — Jen Kirkman

“People are always asking me when I’m going to retire. Why should I? I’ve got it two ways. I’m still making movies, and I’m a senior citizen, so I can see myself at half price.” — George Burns

 “You are a person I really admire, because you are a person who gets to retire.” — Unknown

 “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

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

“There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world. Because you realize there is so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on.” – Zayn Malik

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” — Bill Watterson

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

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

“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

“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

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

“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.” — Doug Larson

“You can never have the comeback if you don’t have the retirement.” —Chael Sonnen

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

---

If you like these retirement quotes, please see our favorite quotes for traveling with friends.

For the latest travel destinations, please head on over to our home page.

Sharing is caring!