Many retirement quotes we find are pretty cynical and sarcastic, aren’t they? They’re often about getting old and boring, or about having little money in return for freedom. Meanwhile, many of us find our semi-retired life more valuable than ever. You may welcome the most unexpected, but wonderful life if you leave your well-paying job early to earn your living by doing what you truly love to do.
Early retirement. If you are apprehensive about taking the plunge, it’s totally understandable, because it’s your career, and it’s money. It’s so hard to decide to give up the job that you’ve been proud to have for decades. And when you have loved ones to protect, the option to retire early may not seem financially viable.
By definition, retirement refers to when you leave the workforce permanently. On the other hand, the American novelist Mark Twain famously said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That means, you leave your job during the latter half of life and start a new career purely to enjoy, then you’re practically retired.
If you are a competitive person, good for you. But who are you competing with? Is it a continuous thing? You can escape the rat race and still compete with yourself - retirement comes to everyone eventually, so making the right decision at the right time is ultimately up to you. These 101 retirement quotes will keep you inspired and help you start planning for your 2nd life.
101 Retirement Quotes to Enjoy Freedom
- 1"For many, retirement is a time for personal growth, which becomes the path to greater freedom." - Robert Delamontague
- 2"Retirement is the only time in your life when time no longer equals money." - Anonymous
- 3"Live each day as if your life had just begun." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
- 4"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
- 5"The best part about being retired is never having to request time off." - Anonymous
- 6"Retirement is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the open highway." - Anonymous
- 7"Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else." - Fred Rogers
- 8"If you do what you love, it is the best way to relax" - Christian Louboutin
- 9"Retirement, a time to enjoy all the things you never had time to do when you worked." - Catherine Pulsifer
- 10"It’s a good, quiet retirement. Most days I do nothing, but it takes me all day to do it." - Barry Wilkin
- 11"To me, retirement means doing what you have fun doing." - Dick Van Dyke
- 12"Retirement is when you start working at living and quit living at work." - Anonymous
- 13"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
- 14"There are three good reasons to be a teacher - July, August, and retirement." - Anonymous
15 "Life is short. Be silly. Have fun. Love the people who treat you right. Forget the ones who don’t. Regret nothing." - Karen Salmansohn
- 16"Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to." - Harry Emerson Fosdick
- 17"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
- 18"Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials - much to live on and much to live for." - Anonymous
- 19"Retirement isn't the end of the road, but just a turn in the road." - Anonymous
- 20"There is no sense in being pessimistic about your retirement. It wouldn’t work anyway." - Anonymous
- 21"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
- 22"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
- 23"You can retire, but you can’t retire from being great!" - Anonymous
- 24"Don’t just retire from something; have something you retire to." - Anonymous
- 25"Retirement: It's nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along with less cheese." - Gene Perret
- 26"How do you know it's time to retire? It's when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it." - Anonymous
- 27"Now that you're retired, you have most of everything you need. Just take care of yourself and be happy." - Anonymous
- 28"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
- 29"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
30 "We all have two lives. The second one starts when we realize we only have one." - Tom Hiddleston
- 31"You know you’re ready to retire when you think “getting lucky” means finding your car in the parking lot." - Anonymous
- 32"Retirement, a perfect time to do what you want to, when you want to, where you want to do it, and, exactly how you want to do it." - Catherine Pulsifer
- 33"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." - Mark Twain
- 34"In retirement it’s not the years in your life. It’s the life in your years." - Anonymous
- 35"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
- 36"Retirement means doing whatever I want to do. It means choice." - Dianne Nahirny
- 37"Time spent in laughter when one is retired is well invested." - Anonymous
- 38"I don't have anything to prove anymore. I can relax." - Paloma Picasso
- 39"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
- 40"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
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Work From Home Jobs For Seniors
Work-From-Home Seniors and Mental Health
101 Retirement Quotes to Enjoy Freedom - Continued
Do you know having a retirement job is not necessarily about earning a small supplemental income? You can start working online, learn as much as you can for a while so that you’ll eventually earn more than you do now with fewer working hours. That’s exactly what we do.
You may have something that you’ve wanted to do for years but never seem to have the time for. Then you know you only live once and you’ll only regret the chances you didn’t take.
Start planning for your early retirement now if you are considering it. Because you don’t want to waste years waiting for the perfect moment. The last thing you want is to end up being a pensioner like everyone else, too old to do anything special.
- 41"There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working." - Robert Half
- 42"The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off." - Abe Lemons
- 43"No one has power over you. You are in control of your life and your choices decide your own fate." - Anonymous
- 44"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want." - Bill Waterson
- 45"Believe that your greatest contribution is always ahead of you. You might retire from a job, but never retire from making contributions. Indeed, life is about contribution, not accumulation." - Hyrum W. Smith
- 46"The key to retirement is to find joy in the little things." - Susan Miller
- 47"Retirement is a blank sheet of paper. It is a chance to redesign your life into something new and different." - Patrick Foley
- 48"When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go!" - Anonymous
- 49"Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire." - Samuel Johnson
- 50"When some people retire, it’s going to be hard to be able to tell the difference." - Virginia Graham
51 "What do you call a person who is happy on a Monday? Retired." - Anonymous
- 52"Retirement is not in my vocabulary. They aren't going to get rid of me that way." - Betty White
- 53"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!" - Anonymous
- 54"Age is just a number, but retirement is one of the greatest gifts to mankind." - Anonymous
- 55"Retirement: That's when you return from work one day and say, 'Hi, Honey, I'm home - forever.'" - Gene Perret
- 56"Don't act your age in retirement. Act like the inner young person you have always been." - J. A. West
- 57"I have never liked working. To me a job is an invasion of privacy." - Danny McGoorty
- 58"Life starts at retirement." - Anonymous
- 59"A lot of our friends complain about their retirement. We tell 'em to get a life." - Larry Laser
- 60"Retirement is wonderful. It's doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it." - Gene Perret
- 61"Retirement: World's longest coffee break." - Anonymous
- 62"The challenge to retirement is spending more time without spending more money." - Anonymous
- 63"Retirement - now life begins." - Catherine Pulsifer
- 64"Throughout your career you have been someone’s boss. Retirement is your chance to be your own." - Anonymous
- 65"For retirement brings repose, and repose allows a kindly judgment of all things." - John Sharp Williams
66 "I no longer have to earn my living, I'm living my life." - Ray Alexander
- 67"And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln
- 68"The company gave me an aptitude test and I found out the best work I was best suited for was retirement." - Anonymous
- 69"Stay young at heart, kind in spirit, and enjoy retirement living." - Danielle Duckery
- 70"The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does." - Anonymous
- 71"Retirement is when having a good time is your only job." - Anonymous
- 72"I find the biggest trouble with having nothing to do is you can't tell when you are done." - Anonymous
- 73"You don't stop laughing when you grow old. You grow old when you stop laughing." - George Bernard Shaw
- 74"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
- 75"Retirement: When you stop lying about your age and start lying around the house." - Anonymous
- 76"Retire from your job, but never retire your mind." - Anonymous
- 77"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." - Will Rogers
- 78"True success, true happiness lies in freedom and fulfillment." - Dada Vaswani
- 79"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
- 80"Working people have a lot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work." - Clarence Darrow
81 "Say goodbye to mental stress and hello to total freedom." - Anonymous
- 82"Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples." - George Burns
- 83"Choose a work that you love and you won't have to work another day." - Confucius
- 84"Make the most of your retirement life. Embrace each day. Live the moment." - Anonymous
- 85"Freedom - to walk free and own no superior." - Walt Whitman
- 86"No alarm clock needed. My passion wakes me." - Eric Thomas
- 87"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
- 88"Retirement is a time to enjoy what you have been working so hard for." - Anonymous
- 89"Retiring from work does not mean retiring from life! It is just the beginning not the end!" - Anonymous
- 90"There’s one thing I always wanted to do before I quit… retire!" - Groucho Marx
91 "Keep doing what's best for your soul, that's your ultimate mission from now on." - Ray Alexander
- 92"Retirement itself is the best gift. No gold watch could ever top it." - Abigail Charleson
- 93"Retirement brings the ball to your court, where you make the rules." - Anonymous
- 94"My retirement plan is to get thrown into a minimum security prison in Hawaii." - Julius Sharpe
- 95"To be alone is one of the most beautiful experiences. You are no more bothered by others; you are no more forcing yourself to do something which is expected." - Osho
- 96"You have to put off being young until you can retire." - Anonymous
- 97"I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying." - The Shawshank Redemption
- 98"I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day." - Gene Perret
- 99"Live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find eternity in each moment." - Henry David Thoreau
- 100"Retire from work, but not from life." - MK Soni
- 101"Retirement is when you stop living at work and start working at living." - Anonymous
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Hi, thank you for so many retirement quotes. This makes me realize that retirement is not something that you wait until you become old, but if you want to have a quality life, you can work towards early retirement and will be able to control your life quicker than everybody else. I’m very excited to see some of the quotes including yours, Ray. Do you publish books? If so, where can I get them? Thank you for the very inspirational page.
Hi Hitesh, I’m glad you like the page. No we’re just a bunch of bloggers, we don’t publish books. But I seem to remember you have written some books, haven’t you?
Ray