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“I, too, have tried a hand at governing AA. Each time I have strenuously tried it I have been shouted down; so loudly, in fact, that on several occasions it looked as though I was due for swift and certain excommunication!”

“Taking the Steps let me free my mind of the myriad troubles and concerns that we all have. I was able to quiet the incessant voices so that God could enter and start to solve my problems. I paid every bill I could -- not just financial bills but emotional and spiritual ones as well. By taking care of my debts, I've been able to remove them from my mind; they no longer occupy that space and control my thoughts. The Steps also show me that today, I must live up to own standards, not anyone else's. If I can live up to my own code, I can be comfortable with me.”

“I can recall that even as a small child I had allergic reactions to certain forms of reality.”

“A friend of mine told me about going to see the Statue of Liberty on a field trip with his grammar school class. He said that as they walked up the long spiral staircase, they all held hands in a line. He couldn't see the person at the beginning or the end of the line but he felt safe. He knew he was connected to the rest of his schoolmates. That's the way it is in AA. We can't see the people at the beginning of the line or the end of the line. But we know they're there -- and we know we're safe.”

"“In our Twelve Traditions we have set our faces against nearly every trend in the outside world.

“We have denied ourselves personal government, professionalism and the right to say who our members shall be. We have abandoned do-goodism, reform and paternalism. We refuse charitable money and prefer to pay our own way. We will cooperate with practically everybody, yet we decline to marry our Society to anyone. We abstain from public controversy and will not quarrel among ourselves about those things that so rip society asunder -- religion, politics and reform. We have but one purpose: to carry the AA message to the sick alcoholic who wants it.

“We take these attitudes not at all because we claim special virtue or wisdom; we do these things because hard experience has told us that we must -- if AA is to survive in the distraught world of today.”"

“If we dwell on the past or the future, we put ourselves back into the torture chamber. We stop changing. Boredom, pain, and futility take over again. We have been ... We will be ... We no longer are. The 24-hour program disappears. Anxiety, anger, and a desire for revenge replace spiritual experience. Awareness and surrender cease. We are on a dry drunk.”

“The torch of Service did pass from the hands of us who are older to yours, which are younger; it passed to every oncoming generation of those children of the night whose darkness, God willing, shall be banished within the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous all through the bright years which destiny surely holds in store for us.”

“I went to my former employer and made my amends. What started out as one of my worst days -- because I was so scared -- became one of my best days when it was over.  Because I had trusted God, my sponsor, and AA that trinity had lifted the weight that was on my shoulders for so long. I felt sober. ”

“Spirituality for me is not a question of feeling good (though feeling good is a feeling I like a whole lot). Instead it is a matter of finding from prayer and meditation, from other people, from meetings -- in short, from all the ‘tools of recovery’ -- the power to do what is good, what is healthy, what brings joy and healing to myself and others.”

“If we’re willing to expose the pages of our lives to the love and understanding of our Higher Power and a fellow alcoholic, we’ll surely know a new freedom and a new happiness. We’ll discover that love is never having to feel alone again; that God’s presence in our lives has become profound; and that the unity of the Fellowship of the spirit can be ours so long as we’re willing to ‘pass it on.’”

"“Once upon a time, all AA meetings were held in homes. There weren’t any committees and nobody put up a cent. We hadn’t even a name and founders were unheard of. It was that simple.

“Yet we did enjoy one ‘service’ -- a valuable one, too. Wives baked cakes and brewed strong coffee for us alkies huddling together in the front parlors, still terrified that our new program might not work after all. Those wifely dispensations of good cheer smoothed the way and so lightened our burden of doubt.”"

“I practice the Twelve Steps of AA every day to the best of my ability. As long as I do that, I will not need to drink, no matter what situation I am faced with.”

“I realized that I had not been the actual author of the Traditions. I had merely mirrored principles which had already been hammered out on thousands of anvils of AA group experience.”

“God never gives me more than I can handle, but sometimes he takes me right to the edge.”

“The great gratitude I’ve always felt made it possible to connect the miracles in my life and so many others’ with surrender to the Steps and the practice of their principles. One day, I simply heard myself talking about Step Three to a new ‘baby,’ and I knew I believed what I was saying.”