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

“Belonging to a group makes life an opportunity for me ... something to encourage the best in me while it helps to keep me humble about the worst in me.”

“Our fellowship has been permitted to achieve -- though still in miniature -- the ‘one world’ dream of philosophers. Ours is a world in which we can hotly differ, yet never think of schism or conflict as a solution.”

“At my very first AA meeting ... I heard words of love, understanding and compassion ... I believe the hand of God reached down at that meeting and healed me. For from that day thirty-eight years ago to this, I have not had a desire to drink or escape from reality again.”

“If all I have is a dollar in my pocket and I’m at a meeting, logic tells me to save it for myself for later. If I give it to AA, and have faith in the process, it will come back to me in ways I can’t even imagine.”

“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.”

“Certainly, we need leaders, but we must regard them as the human agent of the Higher Power and not with undue adulation as individuals.”

“Anonymity is a spiritual foundation not only of Tradition Twelve, but of sobriety itself.”

“Success and failure share a common denominator ... both are temporary.”

“God grant that AA may ever stay simple.”

“Today’s disappointment, viewed six months hence, may turn out to be one of the best breaks we ever got.”

“Coincidences are merely a manner in which God protects his anonymity.”

“If each sufferer were to carry the news of the scientific hopelessness of alcoholism to each new prospect, he might be able to lay every newcomer wide open to a transforming spiritual experience.”