Is it correct to say "Many are to rest, but few are to relax"?

Question

Is it right to say

"Many are to rest, but few are to relax"

to express the meaning:

"There are lots of people who rest but only a few who relax"?

(To clarify, I meant the state of being with the verb, not the state of doing.)

The actual sentence I wrote that led to this question is:

"Many are to sense, but few are to feel."

Does that mean that many people sense 'it', but few actually feel 'it'? Or, more precisely, many people will always sense things, but few will always feel things.

I've heard the expression "Many are called, but few are chosen," which has a similar structure to the same expression in Arabic (and maybe some other languages, too).

Answer 1

You want:

Many rest, but few relax.

Many sense, but few feel.

You are on the right track with Many are called, but few are chosen.

But what’s confusing you is that the above example happens to be in the passive voice. If you try out an active voice version, it might be easier to see the construction:

God calls many, but God chooses few.

Answer 2

It's grammatical, but it's odd, and doesn't mean quite what you intend.

The construction has a feel of "should" or "supposed to".

So many are to rest means "many are supposed to rest", not "many do rest".

It doesn't make a lot of sense to use this with an indefinite subject like "many".