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“I was amazed at the things I was grateful for: those painful situations that served to show me my character defects; the ability to accept and share my pain with others; the opportunities to do things I was afraid to do which gave me strength and confidence.”

“The Twelve Steps are deceptively simple but provide limitless spiritual growth for anyone with the patience to stay the course.”

“Recovery is giving it away. If you don’t give it away you can’t have it ... Be part of the pipeline.”

“I ask the newcomer to help me wash the coffeepot, or put chairs away, because service was, and still is, my key to belonging.”

“We sense that here in AA this shared darkness has become a shared light.”

“I began to find ... a more centered, purposeful life, at least in the sense that my body, mind, emotions, and soul were all more or less heading in the same direction. I was riding one horse instead of four.”

“Difficult times bring us to new degrees of acceptance and humility because we learn on a deeper level how close we really are to our next drink. If we hang on, we learn how the grace of the Fellowship and the principles of the program carry us through the tough spots as well as the times of joy.”

“The greatest promise in the program is the one in the Twelfth Step. It tells me I will have a spiritual awakening as the result of the Steps. I know I need that awakening to have a chance to stay sober.”

“I sabotage myself if I attach my sobriety to people, places, or things.”

“Coincidences are merely a manner in which God protects his anonymity.”

“When I first started in AA, I began each day asking God to help keep me sober that day, and ended each night by thanking him for another day of sobriety. I still end each day that way, as I have done almost every night during the past forty-one years. It is a routine for me, but every once in a while I pause to reflect on what it truly means. I do it every night so that God won’t change his mind, as I truly believe he helped lead me from the pits of alcoholism to the AA way of life.”

“I have always carried a meeting list and quarter for a phone call because I don’t know when I am going to want another drink.”

“Our Serenity Prayer ... brings a new light to us that can dissipate our old-time and nearly fatal habit of fooling ourselves.”

“We now know that we do not have to run away, nor ought we again try to overcome adversity by still another bulldozing power drive that can only push up obstacles before us faster than they can be taken down.”

“I have no secrets, and I fear no man. I am not anxious about death. I am alive, forever, within this 24 hours.”