The Good, Better, Best Chant › Never let it rest

"Never Let It Rest"

The second line of the rhyme has become a saying on its own. Here is what it means, where it comes from, and what it doesn't mean.

What it means

"Never let it rest" means don't settle. The "it" is your effort, your standard, the level you've reached. Letting it rest is accepting good as good enough. The line is an instruction against complacency, not against sleep.

Where it comes from

It's the second line of a four-line English rhyme: "Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best." The rhyme was in print by 1897 and has no known author, despite thousands of pages crediting St. Jerome (the evidence). It was a classroom staple through the 20th century, Tim Duncan's personal motto from his mother, and since August 2025 the Chicago Bears' post-win chant (how that happened).

Bears safety Kevin Byard, asked what the whole chant boils down to, landed on this line: "it's basically just never let it rest" (Sports Illustrated). Older versions of the rhyme say "don't let it rest," and Julia Richman, a New York school superintendent around 1900, used "never let them rest," aimed at her teachers (Latin Discussion).

What it doesn't mean

It isn't hustle culture. The rhyme comes from schoolrooms and a mother in St. Croix, not from a startup. The Bears say it for fifteen seconds after a win and then go home. "Rest" in the line is the rest of a job left half-done, not a night's sleep. If you're putting it on a wall for kids, it helps to say that out loud. More on what the whole rhyme means.

On its own

• As a motto: works alone because everyone who hears it supplies the rest of the rhyme.
• As a tattoo: the most common single-line version; wrist or collarbone. See the tattoo page.
• In coaching: the line you say on Monday after Saturday's win. The chant is for the locker room; this is for practice.
• On a card: the download above, free, no logos; more on the quotes page.

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