Search

“I, too, have tried a hand at governing AA. Each time I have strenuously tried it I have been shouted down; so loudly, in fact, that on several occasions it looked as though I was due for swift and certain excommunication!”

“Taking the Steps let me free my mind of the myriad troubles and concerns that we all have. I was able to quiet the incessant voices so that God could enter and start to solve my problems. I paid every bill I could -- not just financial bills but emotional and spiritual ones as well. By taking care of my debts, I've been able to remove them from my mind; they no longer occupy that space and control my thoughts. The Steps also show me that today, I must live up to own standards, not anyone else's. If I can live up to my own code, I can be comfortable with me.”

“I had been introverted and tense. I had been blocked by a fat ego that made sharing impossible, by a lack of communication, by a fear of love. The Fifth Step swept away all those barricades. With some humility, I could begin to find joy in the simple delights of life.”

“Today, we enjoy a Fellowship which owes its ever-increasing membership of recovering alcoholics (unprecedented in human history) to the well-wishers and combined efforts of many outside agencies and services, as well as many professionals. To these folks, we surely owe a debt of gratitude.

“Yet, the heart of AA remains the same, thank God, when one alcoholic reaches out to another, and we find that we can do together what none of us could do alone.”

“They say love heals all, and I am confident the future is bright.”

“My sponsor taught me how to be of service with grace and gratitude. She taught me how to listen, how to be respectful, and most importantly, to mind my own business.”

“It doesn’t matter who or what God is if I can just remember it’s not me!”

“Everyone’s recipe for serenity is different. It’s like vegetable soup -- nobody makes it quite the same.”

“Should our present success continue, people will commence to assert that AA is a brand new way of life, maybe a new religion, capable of saving the world. We shall be told it is our bounden duty to show modern society how it ought to live ...
“Fortunately most of us are convinced that these are perilous speculations, alluring ingredients of that new heady wine we are now being offered, each bottle marked ‘Success’!
“Of this subtle vintage may we never drink too deeply.”

“‘How will I know if I’ve really hit my bottom?’ I asked at my home group. ‘When you stop digging,’ they told me.”

“AA works on all kinds of nuts (including myself). I just needed to find the right wrench.”

“The AA program does not recognize walls. It is immune to the conditions which break down an individual relationship, the difference in social levels, of intellect, of experience. AA takes no heed of this. It has one primary law, help your fellow man and do it by example rather than by instruction.”

I’m still mystified by how I got sober, and the only answer that makes sense is that I stopped drinking through the grace of God. I was thinking about the difference between those of us who get sober and those who are still drinking, and I believe the difference is that we have accepted the grace that was offered. Every day, my Higher Power gives me the grace to be sober, and every day I make the choice not to drink, to accept the grace.”

“While I have years of sobriety, I really only have this day.”

“Sometimes I wonder if this illness isn’t a gift rather than a problem.”