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“I inched a little bit closer to AA and a little bit closer to myself ... I was suddenly a part of things, no longer just a shadow figure pulled toward the edge by the centrifugal force of my own fears.”

“I grew up thinking that I had to perfect my personality, then I got into AA, and AA said, no, that isn’t the way we do it; only God can remove our defects. I was amazed to find that I couldn’t be a better person simply by trying harder!”

“Today I have a clearer perspective on what my role as a sponsor is and isn’t. It is to stay sober, be available to listen, share my thoughts, pray for others, and let them live their own lives. It is not to ‘fix’ anyone, get them sober, make them happy, demand they conform, or make their decisions.”

“Inside of every human being there is a healing power. I had cut my finger and it had gotten well; I’d broken a bone and it had gotten well ... How come? That to me, in its simplest form, is a concept of a power greater than I am.”

“The wisdom of AA is so deep that it confines its own part in our personal recovery to nothing more than suggestion. AA leaves it entirely up to you and to me to decide, not only whether to use this program, but also how to use it.”

“I think we simply fail to recognize miracles for what they are. Sobriety -- one-day-at-a-time -- is truly a miracle.”

“Peace and enlightenment come when you stop evaluating in terms of good or bad and merely accept all of life as it is and try to learn from it.”

“If the Fourth Step is the exploration of an abandoned house, I have come to think of the Fifth Step as raising the blinds and throwing open the windows. The house has air and sunlight now, and it's no longer haunted. When people come to the door, I can welcome them without shame, and I can even invite them in. Some rooms are private of course, but none are secret, and I live in all of them.”

“It would be virtually impossible to experience the Twelve Steps and not learn something of love. I believe that love is the willingness to extend oneself for spiritual growth. When we answer a call for help, we are extending ourselves for the purpose of spiritual growth. Someone once said that there are three steps to becoming a loving person: love yourself, be yourself, forget yourself.”

“I do not agree that the newcomer is the most important member at any meeting. In my opinion, equally important are those old-timers who showed me the way, and any middle-timer who may today be suffering. If newcomers are indeed the lifeblood of AA, old- and middle-timers are its skin and backbone. What a bewildered mess we would be in without them!”

“If I remove my hate and anger, what is left is love. If I remove my anxiety and fear, peace will result. If I believe in God's promises, the obstacles that I created between God and myself will be lifted. When these defects are removed, then I can start to be an instrument of peace.”

“To us of AA sobriety means life itself.”

“I know that my life is no longer my own. My life now is in the hands of ‘a new Employer.’ Even though I still complain now and then about the working conditions and sometimes have trouble getting along with my fellow employees, it's a great improvement over the way things were when I was in charge.”

“Many people who believe wonder what atheists do when tough times befall us. To whom do we turn if not to God? I turn to friends and reason and experiences of the past. I now think, based on previous events, that the odds are I will get through whatever comes in my life until it ends.”

“When I took the Fifth Step with all the thoroughness I could muster, the part of me that I feared the most no longer frightened me.”