113 Retirement Quotes to Inspire Peace & Relaxation

After decades spent working tirelessly, these retirement quotes will inspire you to rest and unwind.

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Updated September 12, 2022

These retirement quotes will help you ease into enjoying life after your career.

When you spend decades working towards a goal, sometimes things feel much differently once you achieve them.

This is certainly true for many people once they retire.

Working is good for the mind and the spirit, but so is inner peace and relaxation after decades spent working hard.

Once you retire, you gain complete control over your time, experience more freedom to travel, pursue new hobbies, and get the chance to experience a vibrant social life.

Besides, when you’re part of the busy working world, it can be hard to build healthy habits and reach your wellness goals.

But in retirement, you get more time to engage in exercise activities such as golfing, walking, or even dancing.

No matter how you’ve planned for this time of your life, be sure to live a healthy, enjoyable, and fulfilling life.

Below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and happy retirement quotes, retirement sayings, and retirement proverbs collected from a variety of sources over the years.

Enjoy!

Retirement Quotes to Inspire Peace & Relaxation

Check out these retirement quotes to help you or someone you know sit back and enjoy their retirement—because they deserve it!

Retirement is meant to be a reward for years of hard work; there are many things to look forward to in retirement.

1. 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

2. “Stay young at heart, kind in spirit, and enjoy retirement living.” — Danielle Duckery

3. “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

4. “Retirement: a time to enjoy all the things you never had time to do when you worked.” — Catherine Pulsifer

5. “Retirement is not a life without purpose; it is the ongoing purpose that provides meaningfulness.” — Robert Rivers

6. “Retirement is not about ‘finding’ ourselves – or losing ourselves in electronic distractions – but about creating a new life for ourselves and those around us.” — Rick Steiner

7. “Retirement means doing whatever I want to do. It means choice.” — Dianne Nahirny

8. “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

9. “Retirement life is different because there is no set routine. You are able to let the day unfold as it should. Enjoy, be happy, and live each day.” — Suzanne Steel

10. “Retirement is a blank sheet of paper. It is a chance to redesign your life into something new and different.” — Patrick Foley

Retirement quotes will inspire you to rest and unwind

The transition of retirement can be bittersweet. These quotes show both the good and the challenges.

Retirement is a well-deserved reward after many years of working hard in your career.

11. “For many, retirement is a time for personal growth, which becomes the path to greater personal freedom.” — Robert Delamontagne

12. “Retire from work, but not from life.” — M. K. Soni

13. “A thriving “new beginning” can be and should be a time for amazing engagement, growth, connections, contributions, and increased possibilities.” — Lee M. Brower

14. “With retirement, however, comes a great chunk of free time.” — Steven D. Price

15. “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

16. “I’m always announcing my retirement. I’m still not retired.” ― Dick Van Dyke

17. “As in all successful ventures, the foundation of a good retirement is planning.” — Earl Nightingale

18. “Retirement: That’s when you return from work one day and say, “Hi, Honey, I’m home — forever.” — Gene Perret

19. “Retirement may be an ending, a closing, but it is also a new beginning.” — Catherine Pulsifer

20. “Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it to the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.” — Jonathan Clements

Retirement quotes that will inspire you to enjoy yourself

Retirement is one door closing and another one opening.

21. “Don’t act your age in retirement. Act like the inner young person you have always been.” — J. A. West

22. “Retiring just so you can do nothing is no way to live life, and so from now on, the word retirement will be replaced with the word graduation.” — Mike Finley

23. “Sit back and relax and do the things you never got a chance to do.” — Julie Hebert

24. “It can take as long as three years to completely adjust to your retirement. Be patient and know that a new life is awakening within you.” — Mark Evan Chimsky

25. “The joy of retirement comes in those everyday pursuits that embrace the joy of life.” — Byron Pulsifer

26. “It’s time to celebrate all the hard work that led to this joyful occasion.” — Sheryl Sandberg

27. “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 Baruch

28. “A retired husband is often a wife’s full-time job.” — Ella Harris

29. “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

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

Beautiful retirement quotes for every retiree

Retirement brings a new sense of freedom for many people.

These quotes show what retirement can mean.

31. “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” — A. A. Milne

32. “Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire.” — Samuel Johnson

33. “Retirement itself is the best gift. No gold watch could ever top it.” — Abigail Charleson

34. “The first step to a thriving unretirement is to begin by asking yourself what it is you want to be doing.” —- Chris Farrell

35. “Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

36. “It won’t be the same around here without you. For you brightened every day. You will be missed, but we wish you lots of happiness.” — Julie Hebert

37. “Working people have a lot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work.” —– Clarence Darrow

38. “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

39. “The key to retirement is to find joy in the little things.” — Susan Miller

40. “As you embark on the exciting journey into retirement, you will experience a transition that will be both thrilling and terrifying.” — Olivia Greenwell

Other inspirational retirement quotes

Find motivation in the following quotes for how you can enjoy your new found time and freedom of schedule.

41. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis

42. “Don’t simply retire from something; have something to retire to.” — Harry Emerson Fosdick

43. “A lot of our friends complain about their retirement. We tell ’em to get a life.” — Larry Laser

44. “What does retirement mean now that there are so many opportunities for learning, for caring, for serving? We can redefine aging.” — Rachel Cowan

45. “The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” — Abe Lemons

46. “There are so many other interesting ways to spend your time. I feel like early retirement is a gift, but it’s such an incredible gift. It’s a gift I need to use.” — Martha Felt-Bardon

47. “To some of us, retirement gives us time to follow our dreams.” — Shirley Mitchell

48. “Best wishes on your retirement. Enjoy a rest that’s overdue. Take pleasure in the finer things that are awaiting you.” — Judith Wibberley

49. “My formula for a treasured retirement is simple: plan, design, enjoy.” — Julia Valentine

50. “Retirement is one of those consequential changes in life; it offers us a unique opportunity to start over, to move beyond the past and to once again live forward.” — Rick Steiner

More retirement quotes and sayings

These retirement quotes will show you the fun that’s waiting.

51. “I see retirement as just another of these reinventions, another chance to do new things and be a new version of myself.” — Walt Mossberg

52. I think that retirement is the first step towards the grave.” — Hugh Hefner

53. “Retirement has been wonderful.” — Michelle McCool

54. “Your retirement identity is of a successful person who creatively and efficiently manages your money and lifestyle to adapt to the ever-changing economic and personal conditions of our time.” — Lee Johnson

55. “To enjoy a long, comfortable retirement, save more today.” — Suze Orman

56. “For me, being in retirement, it was just having the opportunity to watch other stuff and do different things.” — Shawn Michaels

57. “In retirement, I have enjoyed it… and everyone misses the game, there’s no question, you miss lots of different parts of it.” —- Mike Fisher

58. “For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.” —- Marcus Aurelius

59. You might be on the back nine of life, but it’s good to finish strong.” — Morton Shaevitz

60. “Austerity should not be a death sentence. Every person should be able to retire with the benefits they’ve earned and the dignity they deserve.” — Fuad Alakbarov

Retirement Quotes To Inspire New Beginnings

Many people feel they truly start to live the life they desire once retirement begins.

61. “Retirement is the last opportunity for individuals to reinvent themselves, let go of the past, and find peace and happiness within.” — Ernie J Zelinski

62. “Retirement: a time to become much more than you have ever been.” — Ernie J Zelinski

63. “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

64. “Retirement is when you switch bosses from the one who hired you to the one who married you.” — Gene Perret

65. “Happy days are here at last, the days of nine to five are passed, you’ve worked your life and paid your dues, now you can do just what you choose!” — Anon

66. “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

67. “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” — Fred Rogers

68. “You get old faster when you think about retirement.” — Toba Beta

69. “The goal of retirement is to live off your assets-not on them” ― Frank Eberhart

70. “Retirement sounds appropriate when you are aging, fact is you aged because you have been thinking of retirement.” ― Amit Kalantri

Retirement Quotes For Some Fun During the Golden Years

Get ready to have some fun as your retirement begins!

71. “Retirement is wonderful. It’s doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it.” — Gene Perret

72. “For retirement brings repose, and repose allows a kindly judgment of all things.” — John Sharp Williams

73. “I always likened retirement to falling off a cliff, and then you have to kind of brush yourself off.” — Steve Young

74. “When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent importance, his colleagues generally present him with a watch.” — R.C. Sherriff

75. “I never had the sense that there was an end: that there was a retirement or that there was a jackpot.” — Leonard Cohen

76. “I need to retire from retirement.” — Sandra Day O’Connor

77. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell if retirement is a reward for a lifetime of hard work or a punishment.” — Terri Guillemets

78. “In retirement, I look for days off from my days off.” — Mason Cooley

79. “The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income.” — George Foreman

80. “People may live as much retired from the world as they like, but sooner or later they find themselves debtor or creditor to someone.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Retirement Quotes To Relax At Home

Some think of travel and golf when they think of retirement, but there’s nothing wrong with relaxing near the home front, too.

81. “I’m happy in retirement.” ― Greg Rusedski

82. “For now, I’m building up stories for the retirement home!” ― Carol Vorderman

83. “Retirement is having nothing to do and someone always keeping you from it.” ― Robert Breault

84. “I like to tell people that I finally found something I’m really good at, and that’s retirement.” ― Hank Greenwald

85. “I have to think about the possible ramifications of an early retirement.” ― Ehud Olmert

86. “Younger workers should have more freedom to build their retirement nest egg.” ― Gresham Barrett

87. “You have to pick what you’re going to be worried about. Markets are volatile, but retirement is certain.” ― Nick Murray

88. “There are days in retirement that are the waking equivalent of a dreamless sleep if you know what I mean.” ― Robert Breault

89. “God has a plan for your retirement.” ― Billy Graham

90. “Art is one of the few careers without a mandatory retirement age.” ― Julia Cameron

Retirement Quotes To Celebrate Years of Hardwork

Take pride in the work you completed throughout the years and embrace the new stage of life you’re entering.

91. “I’m really in retirement. My career is over. I’m just playing now and having a great time. I like to keep busy, and I’m doing what’s fun for me.” ― Dick Van Dyke

92. “Once I retire, I’m retiring. I’m done.” ― Michael Phelps

93. “The rolling contract was designed to specifically take away some of that retirement talk and retirement issue.” ― David Gill

94. “Retirement accords with the tone of my mind; I will not descend to a world I despise.” ― Lord Byron

95. “What do gardeners do when they retire?” ― Bob Monkhouse

96. “I’ve enjoyed my retirement.” ― Darrell Royal

97. “There’s no retirement for an artist,its your way of living so theres no end to it.” ― Bono

98. “Retire? I’m going to stay in show business until I’m the only one left.” ― George Burns

99. “The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it.” — Voltaire

100. “Money isn’t everything, but it is when you start thinking about putting money away for your retirement days.” ― Andre Leon Talley

Retirement Wishes Quotes for a Memorable Farewell

These retirement wishes quotes can be a great starting point if you’re looking for what message to write to them.

101. “If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.” — Doug Larson

102. “You might retire from a job but never retire from making contributions. Indeed, life is about contribution, not accumulation.” — Hyrum W. Smith

103. “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 Messages to Encourage Those Retiring

If you have a coworker, friend, or family member retiring, below are messages you can include in their retirement card.

104. “You can’t retire from being great.”

105. “Congratulations on your retirement, and enjoy the world of possibilities ahead of you.”

106. “Now that you’re retired, hope you’ll have time for all you’ve got planned.”

107. “May your hours of reminiscence be filled with days of good cheer and weeks of pleasant memories.”

108. “Cheers to your second act! May it be even more fantastic than the first.”

109. “All of your sacrifices in life have successfully paid off! Enjoy the benefits of having the time to do anything and everything you’ve always desired to do.”

110. “I wish you good health, delight and success as you move forward in life. Thank you for being an amazing coworker and even better friend!”

111. “Remember 9 a.m. meetings and reports? Well, now’s your chance to stop remembering them. Actually, just forget all about them! Happy retirement!”

112. “In the years you’ve been with the business, you have made a tremendous difference. Congratulations on your retirement! It won’t be the same here without you!”

113. “Thank you for being such a wonderful colleague and friend. Though I’m losing you as a coworker, I’m grateful you’ll still be my friend. Happy retirement!”

Did you enjoy these retirement quotes?

Retirement is an important milestone meant to be a reward for years of hard work.

It’s a time to rest and unwind and pursue the things that you really want to do.

After spending many years planning, saving and working hard in your career, now is the time to enjoy yourself and experience what life has to offer outside of your job.

Hopefully, the quotes above will help you rest, unwind, and enjoy your deserved reward.