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“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.”

“Until I was at my complete bottom, alcohol wasn’t even my problem. But thankfully, when I did hit bottom, AA was not hard to find.”

“It was at my home group that I learned to trust the experiences of the early groups with meetings. We have a Traditions meeting once a month and when I was new and heard the Traditions read out loud, the experiences of the early AA meetings gave me the first notion that real people -- drunks like me -- started this program.”

“If I am in pain, it may be beneficial to me if I am aware of those in even more pain ... The answer for my pain is in the Twelfth Step.”

“If humility can expel the obsession to drink alcohol, then surely humility can be our antidote for that subtle wine called success.”

“Let it never be said that the spiritual way is a cowardly or escapist approach to life. On the contrary, it requires maximum diligence and persistence to seek divine guidance when all the evidence of our eyes and ears tries to tell us that life is largely physical, intellectual and emotional.”

“I used to think that having a pint was the only way to have fun; now I know that, for me, it's the only way to destroy the fun that I'm having!”

“As I trudge the Road of Happy Destiny, AA holds my left hand, God holds my right, and I have no hands left to pick up a drink.”

“I learned ... that I was a sick man emotionally and physically. As every AA today knows, this knowledge can be an enormous relief. I no longer needed to consider myself essentially a fool or a weakling.”

“The word powerless ... described my situation with alcohol perfectly and completely. My life was more than unmanageable, it was illegal.”

“Each of us must conform reasonably well to AA’s Steps and Traditions, or else we shall go mad or die of alcoholism.”

“If it were not for the ‘we’ of AA, there would be no ‘I.’”

“By revealing our secrets and thereby ridding ourselves of guilt we can actually change our thinking and by altering our thinking we can change ourselves. What we will be tomorrow is determined by what we think today.”

“The AA message does not carry itself; somebody must carry it.”

“The most important thing AA has given me is the chance to get to know someone I never knew -- myself.”