Neil Peart Quotes

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand... prejudice, fear and ignorance walk hand-in-hand.

...The important thing is: if you fail once, or if your luck is bad this time, the dream is still there. A dream is only over if you give it up-or if it comes true.

From the point of ignition. To the final drive. The point of the journey is not to arrive.

I think everything I do has Howard Roark [hero of The Fountainhead] in it, you know, as much as anything. The person I write for is Howard Roark.

You can surrender without a prayer, but never really pray without surrender. You can fight without ever winning, but never ever win without a fight.

If you've got a problem, take it out on a drum.

I can worship Nature, and that fulfills my need for miracles and beauty. Art gives a spiritual depth to existence -- I can find worlds bigger and deeper than my own in music, paintings, and books. And from my friends and family I receive the highest benediction, emotional contact, and personal affirmation. I can bow before the works of Man, from buildings to babies, and that fulfills my need for wonder. I can believe in the sanctity of Life, and that becomes the Revealed Word, to live my life as I believe it should be, not as I'm told to by self-appointed guides.

The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect, So hard to earn so easily burned In the fullness of time, A garden to nurture and protect It's a measure of a life The treasure of a life is a measure of love and respect, The way you live, the gifts that you give In the fullness of time, It's the only return that you expect

A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission.

Playing a three-hour Rush show is like running a marathon while solving equations.

How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is after all so poorly lit

It is impossible to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and be a Republican. It's philosophically absolutely opposed - if they could only think about what they were saying for a minute. That's when you get caught up in the webs of what people call themselves and how they behave.

I read recently that all of us can be defined in adult life by the way others perceived us in high school. I know [people] who had the popular, good-looking path in high school; they tend not to do so well. It was a little bit too easy for them, where for those of us who struggled in every sense, perhaps our determination and self-reliance and discipline were reinforced by that.

Waiting for the winds of change to sweep the clouds away. Waiting for the rainbow's end to cast its gold your way ... You don't get something for nothing. You can't have freedom for free

Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal - because I'm an idealist.

What is a master but a master student? And if that's true, then there's a responsibility on you to keep getting better and to explore avenues of your profession.

All the world's indeed a stage And we are merely players Performers and portrayers Each another's audience outside the gilded cage

Dedicated to the future, with honor to the past.

No, his mind is not for rent To any God or government Always hopeful yet discontent He knows changes aren't permanent But change is.

Don't try to change Doofus, let Doofus change you.

It was actually drumming that gave me the stamina to get into sports later. I started playing drums at 13, and when I got to the international touring level... I got interested in cross-country skiing, long-distance swimming, bicycling... things that require stamina, not finesse.

I remain the optimist: you just do your best and hope for the best. But it's an evolving state of mind.

Live for yourself... there's no one else more worth living for...

Stamina is the force that drives the drumming; it's not really a sprint.

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

Living in the limelight: the universal dream for those who wish to SEEM. Those who wish to BE, must put aside the alienation, get on with the fascination, the real relation, the underlying theme.

I still totally believe in individual rights and individual responsibility and in choosing to do good.

It's always a happy day when YYZ appears on our luggage tags.

No one gets to their heaven without a fight...

Could hell be a place where there is no self-respect? A place where people have no pride in their own existence or behavior, and thus would have none for anyone or anything else?

Look in, look the storm in the eye. Look out, to the sea and the sky. Look around, at the sight and sound. Look in, look out, look around.

Let your heart be the anchor and the beat of your song.

It's interesting. I've known quite a few good athletes that can't begin to play a beat on the drum set. Most team sport is about the smooth fluidity of hand-eye coordination and physical grace, where drumming is much more about splitting all those things up.

The tarot card 'The Tower' seemed a chilling reflection of the events of September 11, 2001.

I have come to believe that anger and grudges are burning embers in the heart.

There's still a lot I'm angry about, a lot of human behaviour that's appalling and despicable, but you choose what you can fight against. I always thought if I could just put something in words perfectly enough, people would get the idea and it would change things.

If the future's looking dark, We're the ones who have to shine. If there's no one in control, We're the ones who draw the line. Though we live in trying times, We're the ones who have to try. And we know that time has wings, So we're the ones who have to fly.

It was actually drumming that gave me the stamina to get into sports later.

We're only immortal for a limited time.

I don't like lyrics that are just thrown together, that were obviously written as you went along, or the song was already written and the guy made up the lyrics in five minutes.

Everything in moderation, with occasional excess.

Throw off those chains of reason and your prison disappears.

Once I had defined myself as a compositional drummer, I thought, "Well, I want to be an improvisational drummer."

Extroverts never understand introverts, and it was like that in school days.

You can't get wise with sleep still in your eyes no matter what your dream might be.

Howard Roark stood as a role model for me - as exactly the way I already was living. Even at that tender age [18] I already felt that. And it was intuitive or instinctive or inbred stubbornness or whatever; but I had already made those choices and suffered for them.

You just become adaptable and try to lead a good life in ways that make sense, regardless. Because I know at the end of it, if I'm going to meet Jesus or Allah or Buddha, I'm going to be all right.

But glittering prizes and endless compromises, Shatter the illusion of integrity...

More a paraphrase than a quote, really, but it comes from a prayer which was stitched into a sampler above my grandmother's bed. It began like this: 'Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep...'