Well, I gave my mind a thorough rest by plunging into a chemical analysis. One of our greatest statesmen has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it is.
[1890 A. Conan doyle in Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Feb. x. 198]
Change of work is as good as touchpipe [a short interval of rest].
[1895 J. Thomas Randigal Rhymes 59]
Change of work is rest. (Manx.)
[1903 V. S. Lean Collectanea III. 439]
On the principle that a change of work is a rest, we redecorated the bathroom. ‥We came to the conclusion that the saying is a fallacy.
[1951 M. Coles Now or Never ii.]
There would be no fish-bits for Whiskers‥but she could buy him some fish-pieces; and a change was as good as a rest, she remembered.
[1967 O. Mills Death enters Lists viii.]
Me old grandpa used to say ‘a change is as good as a rest’, and at my time of life variety don't often come aknocking.
[1984 D. Cannell Thin Woman xiii.]
‘No disrespect to John Quennell, but my career's not really advancing as it ought to, and perhaps our relationship's a little on the stale side. A change is as good as a rest, as they say.’
[1994 S. Shaw Villain of Earth (1995) iv. 33]
Related to: change; recreation
Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.
