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 (1905–95) American Social Activist
A man can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Retirement without the love of letters is a living burial.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–90) English Journalist, Author, Satirist, Media Personality
I anticipate with pleasing expectations that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
A short retirement urges a sweet return.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Lord Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years, but we don’t choose to have it known.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
With aching hands and bleeding feet
We dig and heap, lay stone on stone;
We bear the burden and the heat
Of the long day, and wish ’twere done.
Not till the hours of light return
All we have built as we discern.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Retirement is wonderful. It’s doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it.
—Gene Perret (1937–2022) American Comedy Writer, Producer
Most people perform essentially meaningless work. When they retire that truth is borne upon them.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
Let me often to these solitudes retire, and in their presence reassure my feeble virtue.
—William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) American Romantic Poet, Journalist, Editor
As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking.
—Gail Sheehy (1936–2020) American Writer, Journalist
Sooner or later I’m going to die, but I’m not going to retire.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Don’t you stay at home of evenings? Don’t you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
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 M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does.
—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 (1937–2022) American Comedy Writer, Producer
There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
A foundation of good sense, and a cultivation of learning, are required to give a seasoning to retirement, and make us taste its blessings.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
How use doth breed a habit in a man! this shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
To judge rightly of our own worth we should retire from the world so as to see both its pleasures and pains in their proper light and dimensions—thus taking the heart from off this world and its allurements, which so dishonor the understanding as to turn the wisest of men into fools and children.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.
—Louis Armstrong (1900–71) American Jazz Trumpeter, Singer
Nature I’ll court in her sequestered haunts, by mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove, or cell; where the poised lark his evening ditty chaunts, and health, and peace, and contemplation dwell.
—Tobias Smollett (1721–71) Scottish Poet, Novelist
Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working.
—Robert Half
Learn to live well, or fairly make your will;
you played, and loved, and ate, and drunk your fill:
walk sober off; before a sprightlier age comes tittering on,
and shoves you from the stage:
leave such to trifle with more grace and ease,
whom Folly pleases, and whose Follies please.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Love prefers twilight to daylight.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
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