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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”

“Thank God for all the wonderful people, professional and otherwise, who have helped me or tried to. Even when the help has not succeeded, it has kept me going, kept me trying.”

“When life presents us with a racking conflict ... we cannot be altogether blamed if we are confused. In fact, our very first responsibility is to admit that we are confused.”

“Truth is not an immutable absolute, a granite peak, eternal, unmoving, hiding its head in a nimbus of clouds. Truth is a ballerina tracing arabesques in a pattern of color and music, ever-changing, harmonious.”

“The most important factor in eliminating resentments is to know you have them. You can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s wrong.”

“By 1937, some of us realized that AA needed a standard literature. There would have to be a book ... Well, we did quarrel violently over the preparation and distribution of that book. In fact, it took five years for the clamor to die down. Should any AAs dream that the old-timers who put the book together went about in serene meditation and white robes, then they had best forget it.”

“There have been dark days where a will infinitely greater than my own has been responsible for my sobriety.”

“The reason we try to carry the message is so that we stay sober. If the person we are helping stays sober, that’s an extra bonus.”