Search

“In the fear of accumulated wealth and bureaucracy, we should not discover an alibi for failure to pay AA’s legitimate service expenses. For fear of controversy, our leadership should not go timid when lively debate and forthright action is a necessity.”

“It surely may be said that the future looks bright. Much more hospitalization, based on the certainty that we are a sick people and that plenty can be done about it, is now on the way. We ought gratefully to acknowledge the work of those agencies outside AA who are strenuously helping this life-redeeming trend along.”

“God has continued to send me many miracles since the first one occurred the day he gave me the courage and willingness to go to my first AA meeting.”

“There is very little in life that I must personally handle or that someone else couldn't do as well. On the other hand, no one else in the world can take my place at my meetings.”

“When I've examined a situation all ways from Sunday, and the only thing I can see are bad consequences, then I can say, ‘God, I don't have the least idea what to do.’ That seems to be the magic phrase for me. Then something happens, and it is usually an action I hadn't thought of doing, and the result is good for all.”

“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!”

“Learning is the very essence of humility. The two walk hand in hand. Humility, as I see it, grows out of an urge to learn from everyone and everything.”

“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.”

“Spirituality makes it possible for me to work for others and to try and help them. It can give me the courage to take good care of myself -- to go to meetings even when I don’t think I need a meeting, to speak up when my alcoholism wants to keep my pain to myself, to talk at a gut-honest level to my sponsor and to the people in my group about painful matters I would rather keep hidden.”

“In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me 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.”

“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.”

“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.’”

“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.”

“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.”