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“Remembering to observe the Traditions of anonymity and nonendorsement, the AA member can carry AA’s message into every troubled area of this very troubled world.”

“If humility can expel the obsession to drink alcohol, then surely humility can be our antidote for that subtle wine called success.”

“Sometimes when I think I am having a bad day, I am really learning a hard lesson, cheap. And sometimes, when I think I am having a good day, I am really in trouble and just haven't recognized it yet. I'm really no judge at all of what kind of day I'm having.”

“When things go well, we must never fall into the error of believing that no great ill can befall us. Nor should we accuse ourselves of ‘negative thinking’ when we insist on facing the destructive forces in and around us, both realistically and effectively. Vigilance will always be the price of survival.”

“I am responsible for reporting for duty and making the effort to overcome adversity, and in so doing to overcome myself.”

“Life is travel -- enjoy the journey, bumpy roads and all.”

“One night after a Step Two meeting, I decided to find out what those courageous early members who put our Twelve Steps together really meant by sanity. I was a little surprised to find that my dictionary defined it as the quality of being sound of mind, sound of judgment, reasonable and rational in one’s thoughts ... As I sat there mulling over the definition, an idea occurred to me: ‘This is what I’m to be restored to -- sound, reasonable, rational thinking.’”

“Clearly, the chief mark of restoration to sanity is our not taking the first drink.”

“Empathy, not sympathy or pity, is the most useful quality a sponsor can cultivate.”

“With respect to its own affairs, the collective conscience of the group will, given time, almost surely demonstrate its perfect dependability. The group conscience will, in the end, prove a far more infallible guide for group affairs than the decision of any individual member, however good or wise he may be.”

“If I want to be a leader, I have to do more than just find out in which direction the mob is moving and then get out in front of it ... Leadership involves significant sacrifice of personal goals and ambitions. A person really needs to have Tradition Two right at the center ... Personal pettiness just has no place in leadership.”

“Although we can borrow from religion, medicine, and psychiatry, we are not any one of them. We cannot run hospitals nor half-way houses, nor marry the group with a religious sect. We cannot send lobbyists to Congress and we don't mix AA with banking enterprises. We aren't educators nor counselors. We cannot lend our name to any other cause except our own. The more we mind our own business, the greater our influence becomes; medicine, religion, and psychiatry start borrowing from our experience and ideas. So do the fields of education, research, and rehabilitation. All kinds of groups based on AA's Twelve Steps have evolved, groups that deal with gambling, eating, drug addiction, mental illness, divorce, etc. They've borrowed from the AA program and made their own adaptations. We didn't have to endorse them or lend our name. This tells us strongly that the more AA sticks to its primary purpose, the greater will be its helpful influence.”

“Many blessings have been showered upon me during my five years and nine months of sobriety -- great spiritual gifts, as well as the more ordinary supplies of money and goods. These great gifts come one after the other in spite of my own foolishness and fumbling, as I very slowly grope my way toward the light of reason and love.”

“Tradition Six enjoins the group never to go into business nor ever to lend the AA name or money credit to any ‘outside’ enterprise, no matter how good ... We would thus divide the spiritual from the material, confine the AA movement to its sole aim and insure (however wealthy as individuals we may become) that AA itself shall always remain poor. We dare not risk the distractions of corporate wealth.”

“Even though some of the ghosts of the past may still be spooking around, popping up from time to time to scare me, today I can pretty much handle them. Today the only real monster I have to face is myself, that part of me that tries to urge me back to drinking.”