Faith & Spirit Quote by Richard Simmons

Relief is doing most of the talking here, not theology. When Richard Simmons says, "I don't have to teach anymore, I don't have to work anymore, God has been really good to me", he's voicing the rarest kind of celebrity privilege: the permission to stop performing usefulness. The repetition of "I don't have to" hits like an exhale after decades of being everyone's human pep rally. It frames retirement not as quitting but as release from obligation, a subtle rebuttal to the culture that treats constant labor as moral hygiene.

The God line is doing double duty. On the surface it's gratitude, the kind you hear from someone who grew up in a more openly religious America and never fully shed that language. Underneath, it's a socially acceptable way to talk about money, luck, and survival without sounding transactional. Celebrities aren't supposed to say, "I made enough to disappear". They say, "God has been good", turning wealth into grace and the end of hustle into a blessing rather than a withdrawal.

Context matters because Simmons was never just a fitness instructor; he was a public-facing emotional caretaker, especially for people mocked by mainstream gym culture. His brand was intense availability: phone calls, tears, hugs, relentless encouragement. So this quote reads like boundary-setting from a man whose job was being endlessly accessible. It's also a small, pointed critique of the expectation that public figures owe the public perpetual access. Simmons isn't asking permission. He's naming freedom.