To retire is the beginning of death.
Interpretation
Retirement signifies a loss of purpose, akin to the end of life.
Pablo Casals' quote suggests that retirement is not merely a break from work, but rather a transition that can lead to a decline in one's vitality and sense of purpose. The phrase implies that without the engagement and activity that work provides, one may metaphorically experience a sense of death, highlighting the importance of remaining active and involved in life even after one has left their formal career.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of staying active after retirement, one might use this quote.
Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.
In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.
I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.
Once I got into space, I was feeling very comfortable in the universe. I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet.
When we are thirsty, we drink the white waters of the pool, the sweetness of our mournful childhood.
The toughness I was learning was not a martyred doggedness, a dumb heroism, but the art of accommodation. I thought: to be tough is to be fragile; to be tender is to be truly fierce.
It is a great comfort to know that our judge will be none other than our savior.
Words. Borne on the ever swelling current of hatred, like flowers opening in the current, petals peeling back, then falling apart.
Talent is perhaps nothing other than successfully sublimated rage.
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