15 Leadership Quotes On Rest

You’re constantly giving to those you’re leading. You give your time, your energy, and your ideas. All of these activities can drain you of your energy.

To be the best leader you can be, you need to learn to rest. You can’t go, go, go and expect to be on the top of your game. You have to pause and take time to recover.

Rest can make you a more productive leader - Woman resting in a hammock

Photo by Zach Betten

The greatest leaders have known this truth. They know they have to take time to rest and recharge.

Let’s take a look at 15 leadership quotes on rest and what they mean for you.

15 Leadership Quotes On Rest

1. Thich Nhat Hanh

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.

Thich Nhat Hanh is onto something here. He has seen the toll of an always-on person. They worry, they don’t allow their body to heal, and their hearts and mind are broken.

Rest helps with this. Rest allows you time to heal and repair. Take the time to do so.

2. Elisabeth Elliot

Work is a blessing. God has so arranged the world that work is necessary, and He gives us hands and strength to do it. The enjoyment of leisure would be nothing if we had only leisure. It is the joy of work well done that enables us to enjoy rest, just as it is the experiences of hunger and thirst that make food and drink such pleasures.

Do you ever long to be free from work? This could be a bad mindset to have. Work is an important part of life. Without work, rest wouldn’t be quite as pleasurable.

Don’t long to no longer work. But don’t neglect the pleasure of resting.

3. Etty Hillesum

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.

Rest is important. It could be the most important part of your day. Are you willing to pause for a few moments and enjoy the rest you can take?

4. Ralph Marston

Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.

There is a time to rest and a time to work. When you’re tired, rest. When you’re refreshed, get back to work.

5. Brian Scudamore

If you go dark on vacation, you will be ready for the light when you return.

Many times you’ll go on vacation only to return more tired than before. This often happens because you’re not truly resting on vacation. You’re worrying about the office and taking phone calls.

Rest is crucial to leaders

Photo by Brian Scudamore

Going dark can be a great way to free yourself from the worry working on vacation brings. Leave the cell phone at home. Close the laptop. Be unreachable.

6. Thomas Carlyle

Rest is a fine medicine. Let your stomachs rest, ye dyspeptics; let your brain rest, you wearied and worried men of business; let your limbs rest, ye children of toil!

I love what Thomas Carlyle says here. Rest is a medicine. A cure for many ailments.

Take your medicine of rest. Sip it and relax.

7. Charles Spurgeon

Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength… It is wisdom to take occasional furlough. In the long run, we shall do more by sometimes doing less.

Charles Spurgeon is spot on with this quote on rest. Rest can help us do more even though we’re doing less.

By taking a sabbatical or rest period, you gain fresh strength. You’re able to face the day with confidence and energy.

Get the rest you need.

8. Blaise Pascal

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

Want to get the best rest you can? Seek truth. Speak truth. Do truth.

9. Ashleigh Brilliant

Sometimes the most urgent thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.

Your body will begin screaming at you if you fail to rest properly. This is why rest is so important. Be willing to listen and rest. If you don’t, rest will become more urgent.

10. Benjamin Franklin

The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.

The great Benjamin Franklin realized rest is a medicine. Have you?

11. Marcus Tullius Cicero

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

Do you want to be a slave? Then never take a rest.

Lack of rest will make you a slave

Photo by Benjamin Ranger

12. Wayne Muller

Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so, if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center.

Ever feel lost? You may not be resting enough? Regular, intentional rest gives you a marker. Use it to guide you.

13. Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

A life full of busyness is not a full life. It is a barren life.

14. Harry Emerson Fosdick

He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.

Do you find yourself struggling to rest? You may also find yourself struggling to do meaningful work. The less you rest, the less productive you’ll be because your mind is not as sharp or ready as it should be.

15. Lynne M. Baab

The rhythm of work and rest seems to help us function more purposefully and energetically, living in the responsive obedience to the pattern God designed for us.

This Lynne M. Baab quote sums up rest perfectly. Rest isn’t to make us less productive or purposeful. The purpose of rest is to give us energy and refocus our purpose.

Question: What’s your favorite quote about rest? Share it in the comment section below.

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