We don't really think of it this way, but retirement can be a pretty frightening experience. After a lifetime of work and a career, facing up to no more employment and filling all that free time can be hard to come to terms with. So a friend or loved one who is retiring will need a lot of support from those closest to them. Making it clear you're there for them and they won't be left alone after they retire is key. One way to ensure this is by sending them a retirement card and wishes, perhaps accompanied by a note.
In order to make your retirement card heartfelt you may want to use one of the retirement quotes below to lift it beyond the mundane of "best wishes" or "good luck". It can be tricky finding the best or most appropriate words so taking advantage of a quote someone else had already said or written may help express your feelings better than you could.
Take a look at our selection of inspiring, comical and profound quotes about retirement that should make your card really memorable and one to cherish.
Inspirational Retirement Quotes
Sometimes when someone is about to retire they may need a little bit of inspiration to get them over the line, so to speak. Inspiring words from a loved one or friend can help them to feel more confident about the upcoming big changes they face. Knowing you have people beside you as you take your first steps into a new chapter of your life, one so different to the decades of work you're used to, can be invaluable and a real boost to your morale. So use one of the retirement quotes below to inspire a retiree into embracing retirement with all they've got.
"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
"Life begins at retirement." - Author Unknown
"Age is only a number, a cipher for the records. A man can't retire his experience. He must use it." - Bernard Baruch
"Retirement is wonderful. It’s doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it" – Gene Perret
"Sit back and relax and do the things you never got a chance to do." - Julie Hebert
"Retire from work, but not from life" - M. K. Soni
"Retirement, a time to enjoy all the things you never had time to do when you worked." - Catherine Pulsifer
"Don't act your age in retirement. Act like the inner young person you have always been" - J. A. West
"Retirement means doing whatever I want to do. It means choice." - Dianne Nahirny
"For retirement brings repose, and repose allows a kindly judgment of all things" - John Sharp Williams
"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
"Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to." - Harry Emerson Fosdick
"Retirement is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the open highway" - Unknown
"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
"Retirement means no pressure, no stress, no heartache… Unless you play golf" – Gene Perret
"I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day" – Gene Perret
Happy Retirement Quotes
Whilst some find retirement frightening and unwanted, others absolutely love it. Years of hard work comes to an end and they get the freedom and time to do as they please. In this case retiring is a very happy time. Which means your attitude towards the retiree should be one of joy and excitement too. So you can use these happy retirement quotes in a card or say in person and enjoy celebrating this exciting new part of their life.
"A retired husband is often a wife’s full- time job" - Ella Harris
"As in all successful ventures, the foundation of a good retirement is planning." - Earl Nightingale
"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
"Retirement is having nothing to do and someone always keeping you from it" - Robert Brault
"When a man retires, his wife gets twice the husband but only half the income" – Chi Chi Rodriguez
"The key to retirement is to find joy in the little things."- Susan Miller
"Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life." - Herbert Asquith
"I try to treat each evening and weekend as little slices of retirement because no one is guaranteed a lengthy one at the end of their career." - Mike Hammar
"When you retire, you switch bosses – from the one who hired you to the one who married you" – Gene Perret
"Retirement is not a work status, it’s an attitude" - Unknown
"Best wishes on your retirement. Enjoy a rest that's overdue. Take pleasure in the finer things that are awaiting you." - Judith Wibberley
"I work harder now that I have retired from corporate life, than when I actually worked, but I love it." - Catherine Pulsifer
"Don't play too much golf. Two rounds a day are plenty." - Harry
Vardon
"Age [along with retirement] appears to be best in four things - old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read." - Francis Bacon
"Planning to retire? Before you do, find your hidden passion, do the thing that you have always wanted to do." - Catherine Pulsifer
"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
"Retirement may be an ending, a closing, but it is also a new beginning." - Catherine Pulsifer
"There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working." - Robert Half
"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." - Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne
"When you retire, think and act as if you were still working; when you're still working, think and act a bit as if you were already retired." - Unknown
"I try to treat each evening and weekend as little slices of retirement because no one is guaranteed a lengthy one at the end of their career." - Mike Hammar
"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
What do you Say on a Retirement Card
Writing a retirement card message is not always easy. It requires understanding of the situation and the ability to emphasise with the person retiring, as it is such a big life changing moment. Having encouraging words from a friend or trusted colleague can help to keep them relaxed about it and remember the people they care about will still be there for them. So use one of the retirement quotes below to inspire a retiree on their new journey.
Retirement for some is not all vacations and free time. It can be daunting and scary. So to receive some words of inspiration or encouragement can be a great reminder of the positives of retiring. You can use these inspirational quotes either in a card or in person to hopefully ease any nerves whoever is retiring may have and give them a little more positivity about the whole thing.
Famous Retirement Quotes
As retiring is such a momentous part of our lives many well known and famous people have written and talked about it. Most of them have said something interesting or amusing, and so these quotes are ideal for a retirement card. They can offer an insight we may not have considered, and add some needed poignancy to an otherwise fairly dull message.
Uplifting Retirement Quotes
Retirement can often be seen as something negative or to be avoided if possible. But the reality is many people enjoy very happy retirements that give them the freedom they've longed for. A happy retirement saying will reflect this thinking and show others who maybe worried about retiring that it should be a chance for them to kick back and relax.
"Retirement - now life begins." - Catherine Pulsifer
"For retirement brings repose, and repose allows a kindly judgment of all things." - John Sharp Williams
"The question isn't at what age I want to retire, it's at what income" - George Foreman
"Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness. - William Wordsworth
"Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials - much to live on and much to live for. I believe that I now have both." - Unknown
"I'm now as free as the breeze - with roughly the same income." - Gene Perret
"Retirement means no pressure, no stress, no heartache... unless you play golf. Golf is played by twenty million mature American men whose wives think they are out having fun." - Jim Bishop
"Retirement has been a discovery of beauty for me," Hartman said in sudden seriousness. "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." - Terri Guillemets
"But what, it may be asked, are the requisites for a life of retirement? A man may be weary of the toils and torments of business, and yet quite unfit for the tranquil retreat. Without literature, friendship, and religion, retirement is in most cases found to be a dead, flat level, a barren waste, and a blank. Neither the body nor the soul can enjoy health and life in a vacuum." - Richter
"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." - Will Rogers, Autobiography, 1949
"A gold watch is the most appropriate gift for retirement, as its recipients have given up so many of their golden hours in a lifetime of service." - Terri Guillemets
"The thing to do is to make so much money that you don't have to work after the age of twenty-seven. In case this is impracticable, stop work at the earliest possible moment, even if it is at a quarter past eleven on the morning of the day when you find you do have enough money." - Robert Benchley
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." - Doug Larson
