"Shortly after I was elected, in Nineteen Hundred and Forty-eight, I made up my mind that I would not seek another term. I have seen a great many men in public life, and one of their besetting sins is to stay in office too long. Nowadays, in such organizations as the Army and the civil service and industry, there is compulsory retirement, but no such regulations prevail in politics. I decided that I would not be guilty of this common failing, and that I should make way for younger menand the Constitutional Amendment Number twenty-two, the two-term amendment, does not apply to me. The people responsible for the 22nd amendment thought I was not worth considering and that Id be beaten in 1948 so I was exempted. "

Truman, Harry S on uncategorised   

"Lawyers enjoy a little mystery, you know. Why, if everybody came forward and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth straight out, we should all retire to the workhouse."

Sayers, Dorothy L. on law and lawyers   

"Men and women approaching retirement age should be recycled for public service work, and their companies should foot the bill. We can no longer afford to scrap-pile people."

Kuhn, Maggie on retirement   

"Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered."

Martineau, Harriet on modesty   

"Preparation for old age should begin not later than one's teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement."

Morgan, Arthur E. on age and aging   

"I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit, and to mothball his opinions."

Bradley, Omar Nelson on generals
3 fans of this quote   

"People may live as much retired from the world as they like, but sooner or later they find themselves debtor or creditor to some one."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on retirement   

"Woman and men of retiring timidity are cowardly only in dangers which affect themselves, but the first to rescue when others are in danger."

Richter, Jean Paul on courage   

"Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap."

Beauvoir, Simone De on retirement   

"Study until twenty five, investigate until forty, profession until sixty, at which age I would have him retired on a double allowance."

Osler, Sir William on age and aging
3 fans of this quote   

"Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give."

Ward, William A. on planning
17 fans of this quote   

"Age-based retirement arbitrarily severs productive persons from their livelihood, squanders their talents, scars their health, strains an already overburdened Social Security system, and drives many elderly people into poverty and despair. Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism."

Pepper, Claude D. on age and aging   

"What torments my soul is its loneliness. The more it expands among friends and the daily habits or pleasures, the more, it seems to me, it flees me and retires into its fortress. The poet who lives in solitude, but who produces much, is the one who enjoys those treasures we bear in our bosom, but which forsake us when we give ourselves to others. When one yields oneself completely to one's soul, it opens itself to one, and then it is that the capricious thing allows one the greatest of good fortunes... that of sympathizing with others, of studying itself, of painting itself constantly in its works."

Delacroix, Eugene on loneliness
8 fans of this quote   

"If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and story-tellers could interpret. Then people like you would have to go to public halls and pay good prices to hear the professionals decode and read the books aloud for you. This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors and I-Married-a-Midget writers who would not have the patience to learn the secret language."

Davies, Robertson on books - reading
3 fans of this quote   

"Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room. Blockbusting fiction is bought as furniture. Unread, it maintains its value. Read, it looks like money wasted. Cunningly, Americans know that books contain a person, and they want the person, not the book."

Burgess, Anthony on books - reading
3 fans of this quote   

"If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the bloodstained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. "

Jefferson, Thomas on uncategorised
3 fans of this quote   

"The bond between a man and his profession is similar to that which ties him to his country; it is just as complex, often ambivalent, and in general it is understood completely only when it is broken: by exile or emigration in the case of one's country, by retirement in the case of a trade or profession."

Levi, Primo on professions and professionals   

"First I was dying to finish high-school and start college. Then I was dying to finish college and start working. Next, I was dying for my children to grow old enough for school, so I could return to work. Finally, I was dying to retire. And now, I am dying"

Unknown, Source on life
4 fans of this quote   

"It is not difficult to get away into retirement; and there live upon your own convictions; nor is it difficult to mix with men and follow their convictions; but to enter into the world; and there live firmly and fearlessly according to your own conscience; that is Christian greatness."

Unknown, Source on greatness   

"Adultery itself in its principle is many times nothing but a curious inquisition after, and envy of another man's enclosed pleasures: and there have been many who refused fairer objects that they might ravish an enclosed woman from her retirement and single possessor."

Taylor, Jeremy on adultery
4 fans of this quote   

"Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire."

Auden, W. H. on cancer   

"In this country men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire."

Adams, Charles Francis on action   

"Nothing is so abject and pathetic as a politician who has lost his job, save only a retired stud-horse."

Mencken, H. L. on politics   

"There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job."

Drucker, Peter F. on management   

"The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians."

Benn, Tony on politics   

"The thoughtful soul to solitude retires."

Khayyam, Omar on solitude
6 fans of this quote   

"Retirement: Statutory senility."

O'Donnell, Emmett on retirement   

"A short retirement urges a sweet return."

Milton, John on retirement
3 fans of this quote   

"When some fellers decide to retire nobody knows the difference."

Hubbard, Kin on retirement   

"Retirement is the ugliest word in the language."

Hemingway, Ernest on retirement   

"To retire is to die."

Casals, Pablo on retirement   

"God's retirement plan is out of this world"

Unknown, Source on death
4 fans of this quote   

"Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark."

Johnson, Samuel on retirement   

"The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does."

Unknown, Source on retirement   

"When some people retire, it's going to be mighty hard to be able to tell the difference."

Graham, Virginia on retirement   

"Convent. A place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness."

Bierce, Ambrose on nuns   

"When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world."

Disraeli, Benjamin on anecdotes   

"When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking."

Sheehy, Gail on retirement   

"The question isn't at what age I want to retire, it's at what income."

Foreman, George on retirement
3 fans of this quote   

"A pretty wife is something for the fastidious vanity of a rou? to retire upon."

Moore, Thomas on wives