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“Our personal ambitions will have to be set aside every time they conflict with the safety or the effectiveness of our Fellowship ... We must sometimes love our Society more than ourselves.”

“I recalled the part of chapter five that says ‘no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.’ And that God could and would, if he were sought. This became my answer.

“I sent God into those dark places within my subconscious. It was there I seemed to store painful memories, those of my childhood in an alcoholic home, and those of my own alcoholism and drug abuse ‘adventures.’ I asked my Higher Power to take his healing light into those painful areas of my subconscious that seemed to be carefully and deeply buried.”

“Trying to understand God's miracles and why he performs them, at least for this alcoholic, is something better left to God. I need only say ‘Thank you.’”

“Every sponsor is necessarily a leader. The stakes are huge. A human life, and usually the happiness of a whole family, hangs in the balance. What the sponsor does and says, how well he estimates the reactions of his prospects, how well he times and makes his presentation, how well he handles criticisms and how well he leads his prospect on by personal spiritual example -- well, these attributes of leadership can make all the difference, often the difference between life and death.”

“The day we begin working the Steps, the bottom becomes the foundation.”

“Faith is never a necessity for AA membership ... sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable minimum of it ... our concepts of a higher power and God as we understand him afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action.”

“I am easier led by example than ordered to obey. I am grateful to those who have shown me how [Tradition Two] works. Being a trusted servant is humbling. Being an equal part of a spiritual whole is enriching.”

“The Twelve Traditions were slowly evolved during an era when large-scale publicity was causing new groups to spring up like popcorn on a hot griddle. Many a power-driven ego ran hog-wild among us in those days, and it was the Traditions which finally brought order, coherence, and effective functioning out of the noisy anarchy which for a time threatened us with collapse.”

“I found a new definition of sanity. It was bigger than any definition I had heard concerning Step Two, but it was also bigger and better than my wildest imaginings. This sanity offered serenity, a feeling of wellness or well-being, possession of a center of balance from which to operate, and a feeling that my place in this world was just right.”

“Each group, as well as each individual, is a special entity, not quite like any other ... each group does have its own special atmosphere, its own peculiar state of development.”

“What keeps me sober and serene is the very act of letting go of resentments, self-pity, fear of others, and whatever else keeps my thoughts going in circles about myself.”

“The sensation of fitting in for someone who has always felt like an outsider is an exquisitely rare feeling.”

“We are masterworks, all lovingly created by God’s hands. Whether our colors are vivid or subtle, whether the design is boldly abstract or serenely pastoral is not our choice. Ours is only to accept this work of art as given -- to strive to reveal our true colors and the beauty of our true design in everything we say and think and do.”

“Never should we be lulled into complacent self-satisfaction by the wide acclaim and success that is everywhere ours. This is the subtle temptation which could stagnate us today, perchance disintegrate us tomorrow. We have always rallied to meet and transcend failure and crisis. Problems have been our stimulants. How well, though, shall we be able to meet the problems of success?”

“Not drinking is the first requirement for joy; the second requirement is gratitude.”