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“I do not need to make amends on my hands and knees; I need to walk tall, without false pride. When I go in humility and sincerely ask people to forgive me, this will remove the burden from my shoulders.”

“Habits are like cork or lead -- they tend to keep you up or hold you down.”

“I am feeling much better now, and I thank God for AA and my good friends. I have learned how to accept their help.”

“When I’m willing to pay the price for top-shelf sobriety, ‘action’ is still the magic word.”

“We who live in the haven of AA cling together with an intensity of purpose which the outside world seldom comprehends. The anarchy of the individual melts away. Self-love subsides and democracy becomes a reality. We begin to know true freedom of the spirit.”

“We can always come up with a reason to drink. The secret is, how many reasons can we come up with to stay sober?”

“The measure of my sobriety isn’t the distance between now and the last drink -- the measure of my sobriety is the distance between now and the next drink.”

“We AAs have had to learn that the kinds of freedom that we must possess cannot possibly be obtained by violence. As a Fellowship, we cannot fight anybody, anywhere or at any time. This has been proved. When we had directly attacked John Barleycorn, we had lost. Booze fighting had never worked. When we quarrel too much with each other, we get drunk.”

“Each night, I think of the Tenth Step and ask myself, ‘Have I, this day, helped more than I’ve harmed? Given more than I’ve taken? Created more than I’ve destroyed?’”

“Nothing could be sadder than to lose touch with ourselves in recovery; to have our connection to our Higher Power blocked by resentment; to be governed by old ideas we are only dimly aware of and that hold us back; or to be reduced by our fears to living sequestered from life. For the sunlight of the spirit to enter, the window must be kept clean so the light can pour through.”

“As of this moment I repose serenely on Cloud 9, being thankful in silent meditation. I know the grim realism of this troubled world will bring me sharply back to earth at any moment, but I pray I may make a safe, happy landing.”

“I know what the temptation of fame and money really is ... I was once a breaker of anonymity myself. I thank God that years ago the voice of experience and the urging of wise friends took me out of that perilous path into which I might have led our entire Society.”

“The slogans are simple things ... these AA tranquilizers do not solve our problems, but they can calm us down, remind us of a better way to proceed, and perhaps even put us in a mood to make better decisions.”

“With the clock ticking like it is, I do not have time for anger, resentment, or self-pity. Time is far too precious.”

“A spiritual awakening is easy: any time any alcoholic anywhere understands any part of the truth, that’s a spiritual awakening.”