Quotes & Sayings About Retirement From Work

Some people say they're retired and it means they have time to do things they want to do. I have always had the privilege to engage in my hobbies as if they were work. And they are. So hobbies are work, but work that you want to do; they are play. Retirement? That sounds like you're going to passively walk into the sunset and disappear. — Diane Keaton

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

We really haven't had very much experience with people funding their retirement out of the stock market, and we don't know, frankly, how it would work under every scenario. — Ron Chernow

A few generations ago, men went to work or war and rarely got to see life beyond their careers. A generation ago, our parents had to answer the question of what they would do with the last third of their lives. How would they spend their retirement? Would it be squandered on silly things or invested in significance? But now, the question of legacy isn't a matter of if you live long enough or when you retire; it's a matter of what you will do with what you have right now. You don't have to earn a living for thirty years to turn around and spend the next thirty giving it away. If significance is what matters to you, you can structure your life and work in a way that allows you to live your legacy now. In fact, your giving doesn't have to be a by-product of your success; it can be the very thing that drives it in the first place. — Jeff Goins

But when people age, they're not looking for a cure as much as they are for encouragement to continue. Our work here is not about curing. It's about the dignity of each person wheeled from breakfast back to their room. — Chris Fabry

There's no retirement, there's just a few years of non-work by the fire with someone bringing you some tea and relative peace and playing with the grandchildren. — Henry Rollins

The longer you work, the more money you'll have for retirement. But the longer you work, the less time you'll have to enjoy that retirement. - Wall Street Journal — Ernie J Zelinski

Well, I think some people are very happy in retirement. And in a year and a half I'm going to see how happy I feel in retirement. I'm just going to not work quite so hard, but I'll continue to write as long as God gives me breath. — Jan Karon

It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label. — Barack Obama

With industrialization has come a general depreciation of work. As the price of work has gone up, the value of it has gone down, until it is so depressed that people simply do not want to do it anymore. We can say without exaggeration that the present national ambition of the United States is unemployment. People live for quitting time, for weekends, for vacations, and for retirement; moreover, this ambition seems to be classless, as true in the executive suites as on the assembly lines. One works not because the work is necessary, valuable, useful to a desirable end, or because one loves to do it, but only to be able to quit- a condition that a saner time would regard as infernal, a condemnation. This is explained, of course, by the dullness of the work, by the loss of responsibility for, or credit for, or knowledge of the thing made. What can be the status of the working small farmer in a nation whose motto is a sigh of relief: Thank God it's Friday? — Wendell Berry

I often would think about how we have built our society, and when you describe it out loud, it sounds rather insane. The idea of being funnelled through a conventional life progression of education, work, career, marriage, kids, divorce, retirement and then death doesn't seem that inspiring to me.
Then we're told we have to struggle to make a living, sacrifice enjoyment to have a family, delay our happiness until we're retired, fight the next person for a job, climb the ladder of success to get an even more stressful job,
spend more money than we earn, go into debt, live in fear of being blown up by some terrorist and then have TV passed off as the only way to escape it all. And when all of this gets too much and you can't keep up, you get prescribed antidepressants and made to feel like you've failed. — Josh Langley

Why just work and live for a happy retirement? Why not work and live for a happy life? — Jonathan Anthony Burkett

It's Good ... But
No more rush hour driving
To start and end your day
No more early alarm calls
But..much less pay
No more back stabbing
Or rising to the bait
No more phone calls from the boss
Asking you to work late
But ... having to get by
On half your hourly rate
Now you have all day
To sit or doze to stay to go
Anywhere you like ...
..cheaply
You've got less dough
Travel around the world
Do anything you've desired
But do it economically
Now that you're retired — John Walter Bratton

Social Security is not a retirement savings plan; it is a social insurance program. It's a contract that says, as a society, we will look out for you and your family when you can no longer work. — Jeff Bingaman

The promise of Social Security was reflected in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inter-generational compact that rewards hard work and provides retirement security. — Christine Pelosi

Retirement: That's when you return from work one day and say, "Hi, Honey, I'm home - forever." — Gene Perret

As Mayor, I have a responsibility to ensure city government is making life better for all Angelenos, especially those whose past hard work laid the foundation for the city we enjoy today. Whether someone is born here, or comes here for college, career, or retirement, I want L.A. to be a place that welcomes all generations. — Eric Garcetti

I do read all my work aloud as I'm working - this has made it a little hard to adjust to my husband's retirement. I can shout the shouty parts if I'm alone in the house, but of course, I feel a fool if someone is there to hear me. — Karen Joy Fowler

You know you're getting old when work is a lot less fun and fun is a lot more work. — Joan Rivers

There's been a lot said about Social Security reform. What has been left out of the debate is the double tax on Social Security benefits. I believe it's time to get rid of a tax that punishes seniors and discourages work and retirement savings. — Rob Simmons

Years of concentration solely on work and individual success meant that in his retirement [Lyndon Johnson] could find no solace in family, in recreation, in sports or in hobbies. It was almost as if the hole in his heart was so large that even the love of a family, without work, could not fill it. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

Simple active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work can actually be the counterfeit of spiritual activity. The real danger in spiritual laziness is that we do not want to be stirred up - all we want to hear about is a spiritual retirement from the world. Yet Jesus Christ never encourages the idea of retirement - He says, "Go and tell My brethren . . ." (Matthew 28:10). — Oswald Chambers

Somebody is born.
Somebody goes to school.
Somebody learns to conform.
Somebody types a CV.
Somebody gets a job.
Somebody follows orders.
Somebody gets a golden watch.
And then, eventually,
Somebody dies.
And, a Nobody is buried. — Mokokoma Mokhonoana

..it is helpful to think of your
life not in terms of work but in terms of music - particularly a symphony. A symphony, traditionally, has
four parts to it - four movements, as they're called. So does Life. There is the first movement, infancy;
then the second movement, the time of learning; the long third movement follows, the time of working; and
finally, this fourth movement, traditionally called "retirement," though now that is an increasingly
complex concept. It is much better to think of it as the Fourth Movement, a triumphant, powerful ending to
the symphony of our life here on earth. — Richard N. Bolles

His colleagues at the Bar called him Filth, but not out of irony. It was because he was considered to be the source of the old joke, Failed In London Try Hong Kong. It was said that he had fled the London Bar, very young, very poor, on a sudden whim just after the War, and had done magnificently well in Hong Kong from the start. Being a modest man, they said, he had called himself a parvenu, a fraud, a carefree spirit.
Filth in fact was no great maker of jokes, was not at all modest about his work and seldom, except in great extremity, went in for whims. He was loved, however, admired, laughed at kindly and still much discussed many years after retirement. — Jane Gardam

I often think about dogs when I think about work and retirement. There are many breeds of dog that just need to be working, and useful, or have a job of some kind, in order to be happy. Otherwise they are neurotically barking, scratching, or tearing up the sofa. A working dog needs to work. And I am a working dog. — Martha Sherrill

I work at a retirement home. I'm a CNA."
"What's that?"
"It stands for Certified Nursing Assistant."
"That sounds important," I said.
She laughed. "If changing old people's diapers is important."
I thought for a moment, then said, "It is for the old people. — Richard Paul Evans

I'm not in retirement. I just don't want to work so much, and I don't get that many offers any more. — Max Von Sydow

Americans believe that people should work hard and get ahead on their own, but when disaster strikes and they need help with retirement or disability, Americans as a whole should come to their aid. — Jacob Hacker

I have known successful businessmen who, upon retirement, lost all zest for life. Their work had given their lives meaning. Often it was the only thing that had given their lives meaning and, without it, they spent day after day sitting at home, depressed, with nothing to do. — Viktor E. Frankl

Dream Bigger
You think. Stop letting
small minded people
dictate your future
when all
they really want is for
you to accomplish
the work of two, for minimum
wage. Reach higher, or
else
plan for retirement
in a cardboard box, praying
global warming is more
than a catchphrase.
And if that
fails
to be the case,
hope freezing to death
is really as simple
as falling asleep,
to the lullaby of teeth chatter.
Dream bigger
before you can't remember
how to dream at all. — Ellen Hopkins

Work helps prevent one from getting old. I, for one, cannot dream of retiring. Not now or ever. Retire? The word is alien and the idea inconceivable to me. I don't believe in retirement for anyone in my type of work, not while the spirit remains. My work is my life. I cannot think of one without the other. To "retire" means to me to begin to die. The man who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age. Each day I am reborn. Each day I must begin again.
For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. — Pablo Casals

After announcing that the 2000 season would be his last before retirement: Last winter I made the decision to coach for only one more season. I have been wrestling with the timing of announcing that decision. After seeing the outstanding attitude and work ethic of this team, I came to the conclusion that it's best to get the announcement out of the way now so we can focus on the season and avoid the repeated distractions that come from questions about my retirement. — LaVell Edwards

Retirement in another country is your body is too racked with pain and your hands are too arthritic from the life in the rice patty fields, so you can't work anymore. — Henry Rollins

People look at things differently. Imagine going to a village in Southern Sudan and try to explain to someone there the concept of life insurance or retirement. Go to Vietnam and say retirement. Retirement in another country is your body is too racked with pain and your hands are too arthritic from the life in the rice patty fields, so you can't work anymore. So you move in with your son and his new wife takes care of you because that's how families work there. — Henry Rollins

The great question that hovers over this issue, one that we have dealt with mainly by indifference, is the question of what people are for. Is their greatest dignity in unemployment? Is the obsolescence of human beings now our social goal? One would conclude so from our attitude toward work, especially the manual work necessary to the long-term preservation of the land, and from our rush toward mechanization, automation, and computerization. In a country that puts an absolute premium on labor-saving measures, short workdays, and retirement, why should there be any surprise at permanence of unemployment and welfare dependency? Those are only different names for our national ambition. — Wendell Berry

I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to preserve the Social Security promise that provides secure retirement benefits for all, especially those who are most at risk such as widows, orphans, and people with disabilities when the need arises. — Chaka Fattah

Yes, we've still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years. — Barack Obama

Including my nine years as a student, the majority of my life has been at Hokkaido University. After my retirement from the university in 1994, I served at two private universities in Okayama Prefecture - Okayama University of Science and Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts - before retiring from university work in 2002. — Akira Suzuki

As a subconscious attempt to add meaning or purpose to their life: The unemployed pray for a job; the retired pray for grandchildren. — Mokokoma Mokhonoana

'Middle class' used to be synonymous with secure, with steady, with boring, because middle-class people were people who were pretty much safe from the time they first started work on through retirement and until their deaths. No longer. — Elizabeth Warren

We don't keep jerks; life is too short to work with them and really way too short to pay them and work with them too. Seems simple, but it requires that you fight to build an incredible team and culture from the moment you post a position until you celebrate their retirement. Every day every behavior, attitude, and execution has to be led well by a courageous, loving leader. — Dave Ramsey

Like the truth, retirement can set you free. Or, like work, retirement can imprison you. — Ernie J Zelinski

I think my idea of retirement might be to one day work a 40-hour week. — Vince McMahon

Retirement isn't a goal; it's a sentence. — Ari Gold

Retirement from work has depressed many a man and hastened his death. — Ezra Taft Benson

I want to abolish tags like 'comeback' and 'retirement' that are used to define every married female actor. What is the big deal? In Hollywood, every top actor takes a break, has children, and gets back to work. — Karisma Kapoor

The system is not intended as a substitute for private savings, pension plans, and insurance protection. It is, rather, intended as the foundation upon which these other forms of protection can be soundly built. Thus, the individual's own work, his planning and his thrift will bring him a higher standard of living upon his retirement, or his family a higher standard of living in the event of his death, than would otherwise be the case. Hence the system both encourages thrift and self-reliance, and helps to prevent destitution in our national life. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

This partisan decision by a packed GOP state Supreme Court takes away worker's rights to bargain for a safe place to work. It underscores the need to vote for me in Aug. 12th primary. As governor, I will call a special session of the Legislature on day one to restore workers' rights, health care and retirement. — Chris Larson

Life is continued work. It's constant learning. The whole concept of retirement I don't even buy into. We should constantly be working. Maybe not physically working, but we could be spiritually, emotionally working toward bettering ourselves and bettering the lives of others around us. — Lauryn Hill

Other people were looking at my decision in terms of "retirement." I guess that's the right term - retirement - from the NFL, anyway, the only professional career I have ever known. However, I don't think that God ever wants us to retire from relevance or significance. We faced a twofold question: what is the best setting for me to continue to do God's work and how did this fit in with what was best for my family? — Tony Dungy

Retirement is the menopause of an employee's mind and hands. — Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Retirement is a very subjective thing. There are guys I know who retire and they're very happy and they never miss work at all. I can't see myself retiring and fondling a dog every day. I like to get up and work and go out. I have too much energy or too much nervous anxiety or something. So I don't see myself retiring. Maybe I will suddenly get a stroke or a heart attack and I will be forced to retire, but if my health holds out I don't expect to retire. — Woody Allen

Along with my retirement from chess analytical work seems to have gone too. — Mikhail Botvinnik

Since my retirement, I've spent a lot of time trying to help the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. A society like this just can't afford an uneducated underclass of citizens. — Charles Kuralt

I only work every couple of years. I go into retirement between films. — Paul Hogan

There is nothing wrong with retirement as long as one doesn't allow it to interfere with one's work. — Benjamin Franklin

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating ... and you finish off as an orgasm. — George Carlin

In the next 25 years, we will see a 100 percent increase in the number of American retirees. The number of workers, however, will increase by only 15 percent. Given those numbers, how can these programs survive? Under our current tax code, these programs can be maintained only by increasing the tax on those who work, reducing benefits for those who have retired or by increasing the age of retirement. — John Linder

Retirement wasn't a reward at the end of a well-run career ... it was a void surrounded by endless dull hours, haunted by memories of work. — Nora Roberts

If you're willing to put in the work, the idea is that you should be able to raise a family and own a home, not go bankrupt because you got sick, 'cause you've got some health insurance that helps you deal with those difficult times; that you can send your kids to college; that you can put some money away for retirement. That's all most people want. Folks don't have unrealistic ambitions. They do believe that if they work hard, they should be able to achieve that small measure of an American dream. — Barack Obama

If Britain is to have a stable, affordable pension system, people need to work longer, but we will reward their hard work with a decent state pension that will enable them to enjoy quality of life in their retirement. — Iain Duncan Smith

Boys who cry can work for Google. Boys who trash computers cannot. I once was at a science conference, and I saw a NASA scientist who had just found out that his project was canceled - a project he'd worked on for years. He was maybe sixty-five years old, and you know what? He was crying. And I thought, Good for him. That's why he was able to reach retirement age working in a job he loved. — Temple Grandin

My father calls acting 'a state of permanent retirement with short spurts of work.' — Chris Pine