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“By the fall of 1937 we could count what looked like forty recovered members. One of us had been sober three years, another two and a half, and a fair number had a year or more behind them. As all of us had been hopeless cases, this amount of time elapsed began to be significant. The realization that we ‘had found something’ began to take hold of us. No longer were we a dubious experiment. Alcoholics could stay sober.”

“I still don’t know much about heaven, but I’ve learned some valuable lessons about life on earth.”

“A large part of my recovery has been in learning how not to listen to myself.”

“Sobriety is a constant process of uncovering, discovering, and discarding.”

“I did not know what real happiness was when I came through the doors of AA. I needed someone to teach me.”

“My local meetings are big on this spot-check reminder: you get what you get; it’s what you do with it that counts.”

“The great art of living is to make the best of things as they are.”

“Every older AA shudders when he remembers the names of persons he once condemned; people he confidently predicted would never sober up; persons he was sure ought to be thrown out of AA for the good of the movement. Now that some of these very persons have been sober for years, and may be numbered among his best friends, the old-timer thinks to himself, ‘What if everybody had judged these people as I once did? What if AA had slammed the door in their faces? Where would they be now?’”

“Every day, every meeting, there’s something more to learn.”

“The alcoholic is in no greater peril than when he takes his sobriety for granted.”

“Sometimes, the only place on earth that makes any sense to me is a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

“My drinking career was all about running away. I could pack up and vanish in a flash. Now, I can make commitments and become part of something. I can let myself belong.”

“The smile from my face traveled to my heart.”

“My inner feelings boil down to a handful of things – fear, anger, self-pity, shame, and feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. These are the things we need to talk about in AA.”

“You’ve got one life to live. Don’t screw it up with a lot of maybes, what-ifs, and could-have-beens. Focus on what you have.”