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
Love prefers twilight to daylight.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Few men of action have been able to make a graceful exit at the appropriate time.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–90) English Journalist, Author, Media Personality, Satirist
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
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 (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
Depart from the highway, and transplant thyself in some enclosed ground, for it is hard for a tree that stands by the wayside to keep its fruit until it be ripe.
—John Chrysostom (c.347–407 CE) Archbishop of Constantinople
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
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
The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.
—Abe Lemons (1922–2002) American College Basketball Player, Coach
Retirement is the ugliest word in the language.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Retirement is wonderful. It’s doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it.
—Gene Perret
Study until twenty five, investigate until forty, profession until sixty, at which age I would have him retired on a double allowance.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
Our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
I feel nothing but the accursed happiness I have dreaded all my life long: the happiness that comes as life goes, the happiness of yielding and dreaming instead of resisting and doing, the sweetness of the fruit that is going rotten.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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 (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
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
He whom God hath gifted with the love of retirement, possesses, as it were, an extra sense.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
A man is known by the company that keeps him on after retirement age.
—Unknown
Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.
—George Burns (1896–1996) American Comedian
Retirement: It’s nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along with less cheese.
—Gene Perret
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
A short retirement urges a sweet return.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband.
—Thurgood Marshall (1908–93) American Jurist
Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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 (1749–1832) German Poet
The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does.
—Unknown
There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working.
—Robert Half
Most people perform essentially meaningless work. When they retire that truth is borne upon them.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
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
Sooner or later I’m going to die, but I’m not going to retire.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
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 kills more people than hard work ever did.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
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
There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
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
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 worst of work nowadays is what happens to people when they cease to work.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.
—Louis Armstrong (1901–71) American Musician
When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking.
—Gail Sheehy (1936–2020) American Writer, Journalist
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