19 Quotes & Sayings By Neil Peart

Neil Peart has been a drummer for the Canadian rock band Rush since August, 1977. He has been a member of the band since its inception and is renowned for his powerful and precise drumming style, which he has used to create a distinctive sound that has been described as "progressive rock". Peart has been voted "Best Drummer of the Decade" by Modern Drummer magazine seven times, as well as "Best Live Drummer" by both magazines in the same year. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1998 Read more

Neil Peart was born on August 12, 1952 in Elgin, Ontario.

You can surrender without a prayer, but never really pray...
1
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. Neil Peart
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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. Neil Peart
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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? Neil Peart
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I even felt a vicarious guilt, like a German meeting Jewish people in Poland who had never heard of the Holocaust, or that there were Jews in America, and trying to explain it to them. Ashea, I wished I could say. Ashea. Neil Peart
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If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice. Neil Peart
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You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill. I will choose a path thats clear. I will choose Freewill. Neil Peart
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You can twist perception, reality won't budge Neil Peart
8
-i was "far and away"-riding my motorcycle along an american back road, skiing through the snowy Quebec woods, or lying awake in a backwater motel. the theme i was grappling with was nothing less than the Meaning of Life, and i was pretty sure i had defined it: love and respect.love and respect, love and respect-i have been carrying those words around with me for two years, daring to consider that perhaps they convey the real meaning of life. beyond basic survival needs, everybody wants to be loved and respected. and neither is any good without the other. love without respect can be as cold as pity; respect without love can be as grim as fear.love and respect are the values in life that most contribute to "the pursuit of happiness"-and after, they are the greatest legacy we can leave behind. it's an elegy you'd like to hear with your own ears: "you were loved and respected."if even one person can say that about you, it's a worthy achievement, and if you can multiply that many times-well, that is true success.among materialists, a certain bumper sticker is emblematic: "he who dies with the most toys wins! "well, no-he or she who dies with the most love and respect wins..then there's love and respect for oneself-equally hard to achieve and maintain. most of us, deep down, are not as proud of ourselves as we might pretend, and the goal of bettering ourselves-at least partly by earning the love and respect of others-is a lifelong struggle. Philo of Alexandria gave us that generous principle that we have somehow succeeded in mostly ignoring for 2, 000 years: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Neil Peart
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Ignorance and prejudice and fear go hand in hand Neil Peart
10
Each of us, A CEll Of Awareness... imperfect, and incomplete. Genetic blends, with uncertain ends. Neil Peart
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To get nostalgic about other people's music, or even about your own, makes a terrible statement about the condition of your life and your prospects for the future. I have no patience with that kind of attitude, whether it's on radio or among friends. Neil Peart
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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. Neil Peart
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I had spindly little ankles, and growing up in Canada, I couldn't skate. I was no good at any sports so was very much a pariah through those adolescent years. Neil Peart
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Even as a kid, I never wanted to be famous; I wanted to be good. Neil Peart
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I'm learning all the time. I'm evolving all the time as a human being. I'm getting better, I hope, in all of the important ways. Neil Peart
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The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring. Neil Peart
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It's not the music you hear in your head that other people are going to hear. You have to be able to make it true enough to the image in your head, and that's where technique and technology come in, for sure, and knowledge. It's not true and will never be true that someone who knows nothing can sit in a basement and make great music. Neil Peart
18
If I have to travel, I'm going to travel my way and travel in the real world. And I'm going to have conversations every day with people in rest stops and people in gas stations and people in hotels and diners. That nourishes me. Neil Peart