If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Neil PeartRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the frustration with human behavior and highlights the power of words to inspire change.
In this quote, Neil Peart expresses his anger towards certain aspects of human behavior that he finds unacceptable. He emphasizes the importance of choosing one's battles wisely, suggesting that although there are many things worth fighting against, one should focus on the issues that resonate most personally. Peart believes in the transformative power of writing, asserting that if he can articulate his thoughts clearly enough, he can influence others and incite change in society.
Themes
AngerHuman BehaviorChangeWordsFight
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about social issues, one might reference this quote to emphasize the role of communication in driving societal change.
More from Neil Peart
All quotes →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 PeartRead
Performing live in front of an audience is such a matter of will - all of those things you can do just fine in your basement, suddenly you have to do them in front of hundreds or thousands of people, and it becomes a different matter entirely.
Neil PeartRead
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.
Neil PeartRead
What I've learned over the years is that the craft of songwriting is trying to take the personal and make it universal - or in the case of telling a story, taking the universal and making it personal.
Neil PeartRead
I've heard the stories. Like, Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice.
Neil PeartRead
Similar quotes
But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!
Kate ChopinRead
Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society never gave them the base to grow on. All it needs to get the poor people out of poverty for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly.
Muhammad YunusRead
We must become the change we want to see.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change; where we are right, make us easy to live with.
Peter MarshallRead
We all remain who we are. But on the way to healing or liberation we have to do what the Romans called agere contra: we have to act against the grain of our natural compulsions. This requires clear decisions. Because it does not happen by itself, it is in a way "unnatural" or "supernatural" . . . (we) simply have to cut loose now and then, and in the process . . . make mistakes.
Richard RohrRead