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“Groups change, just like people do, and we AAs fight change. Although we can never go back to the way it once was, we will survive -- yea, even thrive -- as long as we remember Tradition Five, ‘Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose -- that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.’”

“On a daily basis I choose not to drink – or to fear, hate, be angry, or indulge in any other defect that’s raising its ugly head. They’re all there waiting, and when given a chance they charge into the center of my life and try to take over. But when I work Step Seven I find that my life is filled with good, and people actually like to be around me – something they never did in my drinking days.”

“To be happily sober, we must be active -- and this does not necessarily mean group activity. The Loner is part of a much larger group of people in far distant places, all members of AA with the same problems, fears, and happiness to be shared ... I may not be in face-to-face contact with other AA members, but my real friends in AA are too many to enumerate, and I find there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all I should.”

“On a daily basis I choose not to drink – or to fear, hate, be angry, or indulge in any other defect that’s raising its ugly head. They’re all there waiting, and when given a chance they charge into the center of my life and try to take over. But when I work Step Seven I find that my life is filled with good, and people actually like to be around me – something they never did in my drinking days.”

“To be happily sober, we must be active -- and this does not necessarily mean group activity. The Loner is part of a much larger group of people in far distant places, all members of AA with the same problems, fears, and happiness to be shared ... I may not be in face-to-face contact with other AA members, but my real friends in AA are too many to enumerate, and I find there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all I should.”

“If in order to get into AA we had had to meet any standards more rigid than the one given in the Third Tradition, who of us would be alive? Think of all the wonderful people, including the nonconformists, eccentrics, and kooks who make such valuable additions to our number, who would have been kept out of AA if we had any requirement for membership other than a desire to get well.”

“A vast communications net now covers the earth, even to its remotest reaches ... Nothing can matter more to the future welfare of AA than the manner in which we use this colossus of communication. Used unselfishly and well, the results can surpass our present imagination. Should we handle this great instrument badly, we shall be shattered by the ego demands of our own people -- often with the best of intention on their part.”

“I am grateful that the people in AA showed me how to live sober. However, I have learned many things from other sources. I learned about quiet from the breeze floating through the grass on a warm summer day. I have learned unconditional love from my animals. I have learned how to have wonder of the world from my children. I have learned that all things have tremendous power.”

“I am grateful that the people in AA showed me how to live sober. However, I have learned many things from other sources. I learned about quiet from the breeze floating through the grass on a warm summer day. I have learned unconditional love from my animals. I have learned how to have wonder of the world from my children. I have learned that all things have tremendous power.”

“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.”