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“If the Fourth Step is the exploration of an abandoned house, I have come to think of the Fifth Step as raising the blinds and throwing open the windows. The house has air and sunlight now, and it's no longer haunted. When people come to the door, I can welcome them without shame, and I can even invite them in. Some rooms are private of course, but none are secret, and I live in all of them.”

“The ability to love can never be taken away from me, except by me. When I can get myself out of the way long enough to love another human being, it’s the best feeling I know of.”

“With real faith we can defeat defeat.”

“In a garden we remove or control undesirable weeds; in my personal sobriety, I remove the things that have been blocking me; and in my home group, by means of group inventory, I do something about the things that cause problems. “At the group level, this might mean: 1) ensuring that the message being presented today is as good as the message that was here when we first needed it; 2) seeing to it that everyone coming through the door is given the chance to hear firsthand exactly what it is all about from persons with quality sobriety; and 3) making it known that a group is not interested in outside gobbledegook that has nothing to do with sobriety. “We can't be all things to all people, so let's do the thing we do best and that is carry the message of recovery from alcohol.”

“The sanity I’ve received through work on the Steps is far more than I could have hoped for.”