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“Do I really want ... to be bitter, hostile, and judgmental? Do I want to live inside that sort of person? Wouldn’t I rather forgive, make allowances, understand? Is self-pity, feeling abused, so precious that I will not trade it for self-liking?”

“Gratitude is just about the finest attribute we can have.”

“Clear vision for tomorrow comes only after a real look at yesterday.”

“I persist in the face of defeat. I can risk being rejected now, because I no longer have to feel resentful and depressed when it happens.”

“The emotions of an alcoholic can fluctuate much in the manner of weather fronts.”

“By working with others I’m allowed to witness the miracle of sobriety and observe the twinkling eyes as others learn to speak the language of the heart.”

“As drinking alcoholics, we all ran from life and toward death. When we join AA, we reverse the process – we give ourselves to life as it is, rather than as we would like it to be.”

“There is one job that we can do superlatively well, and there isn’t anything that can keep us from doing it if we are serious in wanting to. That is the job we do on ourselves, inside ourselves. It means clearing out a whole mess of false values, unrealistic ambitions, and worn-out resentments, and putting in their place the qualities we want to have – kindness, tolerance, friendliness ... We can begin to see what the real values of life are, and they are very different from the hazy, distorted dreams we had.”

“If you want to stop drinking AA doesn’t care whether you are a Christian, a Buddhist, a Jew, a Mohammedan, an atheist, an agnostic, or whatever. The door to AA is wide. Come right in.”

“I have a way to live that fills every hole my gut ever had.”

“In AA we have no VIPs, nor have we need of any. Our organization needs no title-holders nor grandiose buildings ... Experience has taught us that simplicity is basic in preservation of our personal sobriety and helping those in need.”

“A fine plan or idea can come from anybody, anywhere. Consequently, good leadership will often discard its own cherished plans for others that are better, and it will give credit to the source.”

“What I’ve been willing to give to AA, most often through my home group, I’ve gotten back tenfold in peace of mind.”

“Feed your faith and starve your doubt.”

“As long as I am willing to do what I am called to do in any given moment and to abandon the effort to control the results of my actions, then I am following the path that my Higher Power – call it God, Good Orderly Direction, the soul, the life force, or anything else – has set out for me.”