30 Retirement Quotes

Retirement is not just a case of not setting an alarm anymore to go to work. It’s a major life-changing decision. That’s why it’s often celebrated and marked by friends and family as a special occasion.

Retirement parties and gifts are common ways for people to recognize retirement. A special card with heartfelt words is also a gift that can be greatly treasured.

If you’re looking for some words of inspiration beyond “congratulations,” take a look at these well-known retirement quotes to add to your card or gift. You can choose something serious or something more comical.

1. “The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” – Abe Lemons
2. “There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” – Bill Waterson, Calvin & Hobbes
3. “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
4. “It is better to live rich than to die rich.” – Samuel Johnson
5. “You have to put off being young until you can retire.”-Author Unknown
6. “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” – Will Rogers
7. “Something pretty…that’s just the surface. People worry so much about aging, but you look younger if you don’t worry about it.” – Jeanne Moreau
8. “The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does.” – Author Unknown
9. “A retired husband is often a wife’s full-time job.” – Ella Harris
10. “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” – Vince Lombardi
11. “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – Mark Twain
12. “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
13. “You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” – George Bernard Shaw
14. “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
15. “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
16. “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
17. “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
18. “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
19. “A thriving new beginning can be and should be a time for amazing engagement, growth, connections, contributions, and amazing possibilities.” – Lee M. Brower
20. “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
21. “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
22. “For retirement brings repose, and repose allows a kindly judgment of all things.” – John Sharp Williams
23. “Working people have a lot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work.” – Clarence Darrow
24. “Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials – much to live on and much to live for.” – Author Unknown
25. “For many, retirement is a time for personal growth, which becomes the path to greater freedom.” – Robert Delamontague
26. “Retire from work, but not from life.” – M.K. Soni
27. “Retirement: That’s when you return from work one day and say, “Hi, Honey, I’m home — forever.” – Gene Perret
28. “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” – Fred Rogers
29. “Retirement is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the open highway.”  – Author Unknown
30. “Don’t act your age in retirement. Act like the inner young person you have always been.” – J. A. West

These retirement quotes make a great addition to any card or gift you’re planning to give. The next time you’re at a loss for words, borrow one of these quotes for your favorite retiree.