Whan the sunne shinth make hay, whiche is to say,
Take time whan time comth, lest time steale away.
Retirement Quotes
Retirement does not have a Wikiquote page, so this one borrows from three that do: work, time and age. The result suits a card or a send-off speech better than a close reading. There are lines about labour well done, about the years running on, and about being old that are rueful more often than sentimental.
As elsewhere on the site, each quote links to its own page with the source and the editors’ notes. If you want to put a name under a line in a card, check for a flag first.
Most quoted on retirement:
Lo! all life this truth declares!
Laborare est orare;
And the whole earth rings with prayers.
The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing.
Age is deformed, youth unkind,
We scorn their bodies, they our mind.
For the next inn he spurs amain,
In haste alights, and skuds away,
But time and tide for no man stay.
Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
The end crowns all;
And that old common arbitrator, Time,
Will one day end it.
As we speak cruel time is fleeing. Seize the day, believing as little as possible in the morrow.
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing.