Neil Peart Quotes

I can't play to that! - on Rock Band

Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw -- The Trees (1978)

Miracles will have their claimers
More will bow to Rome
He and she are in the house
But there's only me at home. -- Anagram (For Mongo) (1989)

Wave after wave
Will flow with the tide
And bury the world as it does
Tide after tide
Will flow and recede
Leaving life to go on
As it was... -- Natural Science (1980)

You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free.
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dream might be. -- Something for Nothing (1976)

An ounce of perception, a pound of obscure
Process information at half speed
Pause, rewind, replay
Warm memory chip
Random sample, hold the one you need -- Vital Signs (1981)

You can surrender
Without a prayer
But never really pray
Pray without surrender
You can fight
Without ever winning
But never ever win
Without a fight -- Resist (1996)

No one gets to their heaven without a fight -- Armor and Sword (2007)

How I prayed just to get away
To carry me anywhere
Sometimes the angels punish us
By answering our prayers -- Carnies (2012)

Wheels can take you around.
Wheels can cut you down.
We can go from boom to bust.
From dreams to a bowl of dust.
We can fall from rockets' red glare, down to "Brother can you spare..."
Another war.
Another wasteland.
And another lost generation -- Between The Wheels (1984)

Among the people whose thinking I like is Ayn Rand, but there are a whole lot of others. It's a kind of disciple mentality that people are applying to me that they think I applied to her and it's all wrong. I'm nobody's disciple and you know 'No god, no government' none of that, so I don't like it applied to me any more than to them.

All the same we take our chances,
Laughed at by time, tricked by circumstances,
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose,
The more that things change, the more they stay the same. -- Circumstances (1978)

I define my approach to each day I am given as, "What is the most excellent thing I can do today?" – from the book "Far and Near: On Days Like These"

Life is like an aimless river The time is now again -- Ceiling Unlimited (2002)

I set a course just east of Lyra
And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way
On my ship, the 'Rocinante'
Wheeling through the galaxies
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery -- Cygnus X-1, Book One; The Voyage (1977)