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"The bottle never demanded credentials or conformity -- neither has AA."

"We AAs are the best listeners in the world -- that is, when we're not talking!"

"It is tradition among us that the individual has the unlimited right to his own opinion on any subject under the sun. He is compelled to agree with no one; if he likes, he can disagree with everyone."

"Great modesty and humility are needed by every AA for his own permanent recovery. If these virtues are such vital needs to the individual, so must they be to AA as a whole."

"I learned that if I had the capacity to be honest, I would get better."

"I continue to attend AA meetings because anything I know about recovery seems to have a shelf-life of 72 hours."

"When I go to a meeting today, I no longer have the delusion that I am supporting a good cause. I need AA; AA did quite well without me during my ten years of self-exile. I go to AA meetings today to hear and see how God is working. When I share at a meeting, it is not to try and 'help' those poor wretches, it is because I need their help and guidance."

"AA is a caring community ... of people who understand how others can be trapped in deep loneliness and despair."

"An old-timer once told me that he believed that AA was a great leveler: When you're up high, your friends help bring you down a little bit. When you're down low, they help bring you up a little bit."

"My soul remained a mystery until my Higher Power settled inside me, appearing to me as a very real feeling of love and caring. Kindness slowly took precedence, and I became comfortable with the idea that I didn't need a drink."

"Those severe growing pains which invariably follow any radical departure from AA Tradition can be absolutely relied upon to bring an erring group back into line. An AA group need not be coerced by any human government over and above its own members. Their own experience, plus AA opinion in surrounding groups, plus God's prompting in their group conscience would be sufficient."

"Sponsorship is a bridge to trusting the human race, the very race we once resigned from. In learning to trust, we are strengthening our sobriety."

"My sponsor ... gave me some good advice. 'Take the words success and failure out of your vocabulary. Replace them with honesty and effort.'"

"I make a conscious effort to keep it simple, because the simpler I make it, the happier I become."

"As an individual I am so small I'm almost totally meaningless in the universe; it's almost as if I didn't exist. But not quite ... As small as I am, I'm not totally meaningless."