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“As I carried the Fourth Step into the next directional action, the Fifth ... I began to gain by pain, to win by losing, to get control by letting go of control. And good feelings poured in from all sides. I discovered how many words that I had been fond of using were actually traps, setting off negative thinking -- ‘If only...,’ ‘You always...,’ ‘never,’ ‘forever,’ ‘If you would only...,’ and so on. I dug in and tried desperately to change word habits, to share time instead of spending it.”

“God didn’t give me this gift of sobriety to sit in a rocking chair...”

“Love is what the soul thrives on.”

“I feel close to the Great Spirit of my fathers. Words are not necessary. The Great Spirit speaks in all languages.”

“I’m not so quick to judge others. If I’m critical of you, it’s often because I’m trying to ignore that quality in myself.”

“The process of one alcoholic confiding in another has without a doubt saved my life. Nowhere else have I ever found such devotion and understanding as with AA sponsoring.”

“I inevitably find that when I’m able to stay focused on my primary purpose, my ‘secondary purposes’ (school, jobs, relationships) work themselves out quite satisfactorily.”

“When we meet and defeat the temptation to take large gifts, we are only being prudent. But when we are generous with the hat we give a token that we are grateful for our blessings and evidence that we are eager to share what we have found with all those who still suffer.”

“Practicing the Twelve Traditions to the best of my ability has become just as vital a part of my personal recovery program as practicing the Twelve Steps. The Steps teach me how to think and act. The Traditions keep my personal program of recovery simple, well-balanced, and healthy.”

“In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober.”

“Part of the magic of AA is that the Fellowship, like the loving God who presides over us all, never gives up hope for the suffering alcoholic.”

“The other Steps can keep most of us sober and somehow functioning. But Step Eleven can keep us growing, if we try hard and work at it continually.”

“We began to see adversity as a God-given opportunity to develop the kind of courage which is born of humility, rather than bravado. Thus we were enabled to accept ourselves, our circumstances, and our fellows.”

“I no longer always have to be right.”

“Compromise comes hard to us ‘all-or-nothing drunks.’ Nevertheless, we must never lose sight of the fact that progress is nearly always characterized by a series of improving compromises.”