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“Through the Twelve Steps I was shown how to sweep aside the primacy of concern with self, to discard the selfishness and arrogance that stood in the way. All these were obstacles to love, and as I began to learn to turn my life and will over to God as I understood him, the first faint glimmerings of humility began to appear.”

“From the very first time I stepped into this room and joined this circle of chairs, I felt a powerful spirit. Each time I return here I feel this spirit and the beginning of a wonderful feeling of peace.”

“I can say no to a lot of things I’m not interested in. All the people-pleasing activities I used to engage in, I can cut out now. That gives me time to do the truly helpful, gut-warming little things, just because they need doing and I truly care. I have time to work my program.”

“In early sobriety, I remember moaning to another member about how I didn’t have a relationship, I didn’t have a new car, and I didn’t have a flashy job. He replied: ‘It takes a steady hand to hold a full cup.’”

“As early as 1945, mediating and giving suggestions by mail for the solution of group problems had put a tremendous volume of work on Headquarters. With most of the metropolitan AA centers, correspondence files had grown six inches thick. Seemingly, every contestant in every group argument at every point of the compass wrote us in this period.”

“AA and my Higher Power have transformed me from a complex person who lived out of her head to a simple person who is trying to live out of her heart.”

“A sincere attempt to exercise the first ten Steps brings into play some of the finest virtues in the human character: humility, hope, faith, honesty, courage, and sincerity.”

“My greatest challenges are before me. But my experience with the Third Step, even in the smallest matters, gives me the courage to meet whatever lies ahead, twenty-four hours at a time.”

“The things that count cease being those that can be held in the hand and become only what can be held in the heart.”

“It is not the fault of great ideals that they are sometimes misused.”

“The simplicity of this program never changes -- what works is constant: trust in God, clean house, and work with others.”

“One old-timer explained it this way to me: ‘Don’t let your mind rattle on at meetings. Then all you’ll hear from someone else is something that gets you thinking about what you have to say. Listen to everything the person talking has to say, as if your life depended on it -- because it might one day. Listen to everyone this way, especially the ones you want to ignore,’ this old-timer said. ‘God won’t deprive you of the answer you need, if you’ve come to an AA meeting needing an answer. He may, however, have your answer come out of the mouth of the person you least expect to have your answer. God has a sense of humor.’”

“Through the years, I have read thousands of books and pamphlets, but the Big Book is still the superstar. The love flowing from its pages encourages me to keep the blade of my sobriety ever sharp and gleaming, to cut through all the ignorance and terror that surround still-suffering alcoholics.”

“Well-remembered is the comfort I used to take from an exaggerated belief in my own honesty ... I was so absurdly proud of my business standards that I never failed to whip up a fine contempt for those of my fellow Wall-Streeters who were prone to short-change their customers. This was arrogant enough, but the ensuing self-deception proved even worse. My prized business honesty was presently converted into a comfortable cloak under which I could hide the many serious flaws that beset other departments of my life. Being certain of this one virtue, it was easy to conclude that I had them all. For years on end, this prevented me from taking a good look at myself.”

“Dr. Silkworth taught us how to till the black soil of hopelessness, out of which every single spiritual awakening in our fellowship has since flowered. In December 1934 this man of science had sat humbly by my bed following my own sudden and overwhelming spiritual experience, reassuring me: ‘No, Bill,’ he had said, ‘you are not hallucinating. Whatever you have got, you had better hang on to; it is so much better than what you had only an hour ago.’”