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“To want nothing -- to know that we cannot make anything happen -- brings inner and outer joy, total fulfillment. The earth and the heavens and ourselves become one, and in this state of spontaneous surrender, we discover the deep, spiritual constancy in everyday living that we were looking for all along.”

“My need lay along spiritual lines, part of which consisted in helping others -- something startlingly new to me.”

“I live in the Three Legacies of Unity, Recovery, and Service, and have gained 36 spiritual principles to help me through life one day at a time.”

“Love mediates faith to others -- by caring what happens to them, by patience, by persistence, by humor.”

“I look upon a pain in my feelings as temporary indigestion of the mind. When I get a stomach-ache, it is generally because I’ve eaten something that hasn’t agreed with me. Likewise, my mental indigestion comes from some story, bit of gossip or circumstance that I’ve swallowed without thinking.”

“AA has given each and every one of its groups and members the inalienable right to be unerringly wrong, which has many times resulted in the liberty to be foolish, the sovereignty to self-destruct, and the self-determination to learn from mistakes.”

“Every day is not a bed of roses, but it is such a relief to know that no matter what life throws my way, I never have to do it alone. I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

“We cannot just keep chipping away at defects of character without developing something to replace them. Assets are the only item I can find to develop, and the Fourth Step seems to be the ideal way of monitoring where I am at with both assets and defects.”

“I can better understand when I learn to listen.”

“I can choose to carry the weight of the world and my problems around on my shoulders, or I can turn them all over to my Higher Power and let her worry about them.”

“Reality nourishes and fulfills.”

“I’m better able to love people when the storm of my judgmental mind settles, when I understand and empathize rather than criticize and condemn.”

“As AA grows, it is impossible to know everyone, but if I try to relate myself with just one other person, something will happen, something remarkable.”

“When we early AAs got our first glimmer of how spiritually prideful we could be, we coined this expression: ‘Don’t try to get too damned good by Thursday!’”

“One of the first insights Dr. Bob and I shared was that all true communication must be founded on mutual need. Never could we talk down to anyone, certainly not to a fellow alcoholic. We saw that each sponsor would have to humbly admit his own needs as clearly as those of his prospect.”