Retire from work, but not from life.

The line draws a sharp distinction between leaving paid employment and withdrawing from engagement with the world. It frames retirement not as an ending but as a transition: one may step away from the routines, pressures, and identity of “work” while remaining active in relationships, learning, service, creativity, and civic life. Implicitly, it warns against the social and psychological risks of retirement—loss of purpose, isolation, passivity—and urges the retiree to cultivate meaning beyond a job title. As a maxim, it also critiques a culture that equates a person’s value with productivity, insisting that a full life continues after one’s career concludes.