any relief from exertion; a state of quiet and relaxation From Wikiquote, the free quote compendium
Rest is relief from work or activity, usually by sleeping, or by indulging in quiet and relaxation.
In the rest of Nirvana all sorrows surcease: Only Buddha can guide to that city of Peace Whose inhabitants have the eternal release.
William R. Alger, "A Leader to Repose", Poetry of the Orient (1865), p. 101.
Silken rest Tie all thy cares up!
Beaumont and Fletcher, Four Plays in One (c. 1608–13; published 1647), scene 4, Triumph of Love.
The result would inevitably be a state of universal rest and death, if the universe were finite and left to obey existing laws. But it is impossible to conceive a limit to the extent of matter in the universe; and therefore science points rather to an endless progress, through an endless space, of action involving the transformation of potential energy into palpable motion and hence into heat, than to a single finite mechanism, running down like a clock, and stopping for ever.
William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1862). "On the age of the sun’s heat", Macmillan’s Mag., 5, 288–93; PL, 1, 394–68.
Rest is sweet after strife.
Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton), Lucile (1860), Part I, Canto VI, Stanza 25.
Weariness Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth Finds the down pillow hard.
O! quid solutis est beatius curis! Cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino Labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum Desideratoque acquiescimus lecto. Hoc est, quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.
O, what is more sweet than when the mind, set free from care, lays its burden down; and, when spent with distant travel, we come back to our home, and rest our limbs on the wished-for bed? This, this alone, repays such toils as these!
Life's race well run, Life's work well done, Life's victory won, Now cometh rest.
Dr. Edward Hazen Parker, Funeral Ode on President Garfield. Claimed for him by his brother in Notes and Queries, May 25, 1901, p. 406. Claimed by Mrs. John Mills, for John Mills of Manchester, 1878. Appears in the Life of John Mills with account of origin. See Notes and Queries. Ser. 9, Volume IV, p. 167. Also Volume VII, p. 406.
Master, I've filled my contract, wrought in Thy many lands; Not by my sins wilt Thou judge me, but by the work of my hands. Master, I've done Thy bidding, and the light is low in the west, And the long, long shift is over … Master, I've earned it—Rest.