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

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

And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start to mold a new reality closer to the heart.

From first to last, the peak is never passed. Something always fires the light that gets in your eyes.

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

I'm still no good at ball-and-stick games. If I go play golf with the guys, it's intended to be a joke.

When I'm riding my motorcycle, I'm glad to be alive. When I stop riding my motorcycle, I'm glad to be alive.

Half the world hates What half the world does every day Half the world waits While half gets on with it anyway

When I started playing, I played in R&B bands. I played James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and all that.

Better the pride that resides as a citizen of the world than a pride that divides when a colorful rag is unfurled

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

I expect if you're a professional public speaker, you probably wouldn't want to go onstage and sing and play drums.

Lessons taught but never learned, all around us anger burns. Guide the future by the past. Long ago the mould was cast.

People don't realize the limitations of 200 words, and the way they get chiselled down into a song that has to be sung.

The government's only functions are to protect the rights of the individual; therefore, you need a police force and an army.

You have to know when you're at the top of your particular mountain, I guess. Maybe not the summit, but as high as you can go.

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.

Each of us A cell of awareness Imperfect and incomplete Genetic blends With uncertain ends On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet

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

I love jokes as much as anyone, but I don't want to hear my snail jokes every day. But I might want to hear a good song every day.

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.

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted. Not so boldly charted, it's really just a question of your honesty.

It seems to me that's the only way you can have a truly creative aggregate of people is if they're all contributing in different ways.

I sang the hymns, and I read the Bible stories, but I was always perplexed, like, 'Really? Jesus wants you for a sunbeam? For a what?'

As crises came up later on - "Oh, we have to compromise, and the record company wants to do this," I'd be like, "No, I don't have to."

Pure libertarianism believes that people will be generous and help each other. Well, they won't. I wish it were so, and I live that way.

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.

I try not to repeat myself in fills in all the Rush songs unless it is something simple or something I feel is my own characteristic thing.

Racetracks are designed to make it as difficult as possible to get around that corner fast. And some ramps, by necessity, are that way, too.

I think, in music, you're always hoping that you'll have a like-minded audience and that the music you like making will appeal to them, too.

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.

I'm less comfortable in a gregarious social situation, and you can be introverted and still share everything. It just means that you're guarded.

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.

You can do a lot in a lifetime, if you don't burn out too fast/You can make the most of the distance/First you need endurance/First you've got to last.

I believe in taxation and health care that is outside the usual libertarian mandate, because I don't want people to have to suffer. It's as simple as that.

Sometimes you're up against everybody in the whole world - even your friends and family are saying, "You need a single." You feel sometimes incredibly alone.

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.

Live shows were always religion for us. We never played a show - whether it was in front of 15 people or 15,000 - where it wasn't everything we had that night.

For me, drum elements are like hieroglyphics - I think of a certain physical figure, and a little three-dimensional glyph will appear in my mind as I'm playing.

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.

When I was young, my ambitions were very modest. I thought, "If only I could play at the battle of the bands at the Y, that would be the culmination of existence!"

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.

...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.

I am a big fan of Dos Passos' stylistic ability, his poetic approach to prose, but the ideas presented in the songs are quite different from those which he exemplified.

With people too, you constantly think, "If I'm nice to people and treat them well, they'll appreciate it and behave better." They won't, but it's still not a bad way to live.

I want to be an improviser, and I've worked very hard at that. It's an art. You don't just play whatever comes into your head; you have to be very deliberate about what you do.

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.

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?

What a young musician's dream, to say, "Look at those chrome drums. Look at that 22-inch ride cymbal. I'll have those." It was one of those unparalleled exciting days of your life.

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