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“I was told when I got sober that I could act my way into right thinking, but I could never think my way into right action.”

“I need to remember how humiliated, confused, insecure and frightened I felt at my first meeting, and compare that to how I feel today.”

“Trying to figure it all out in my head brings on waves of fear, anxiety, and self-reproach. So I say, ‘What can I do for myself and others today?’”

“In AA we aim not only for sobriety – we try again to become citizens of the world that we rejected, and of the world that once rejected us.”

“Human beings come and go, but principles go on and on.”

“I build today the road I travel tomorrow.”

“The most difficult thing a man can do is turn his eyes inward upon his real self.”

“I was relieved to learn that I didn’t have to believe, only be willing to believe. This I could do.”

“Some people think God made life just for happiness, but I find myself unable to share that view. I think he made life for growth and that he permits pain as the touchstone of it all. Happiness -- at the very least, satisfaction -- is a byproduct of really trying to grow. And seasons of real joy are but the occasional byproducts of the process. Which, in eternity, will be the eventual fulfillment. Meantime, we seem to be pilgrims on a road -- one which you and I are completely confident leads into the arms of God.”

“I need to constantly inch forward in AA, closer to the center, to avoid being thrown from the spinning wheel that is my life.”

“I was attracted to AA because it excluded no one, and I am grateful for the lessons I’ve learned over the years: that we stop fighting anyone or anything; that it is the details of what I do that make me who I am; that my perception of life is ever-changing and evolving; that the basic ‘suggestions’ I heard when I entered the Fellowship have been a continuous part of my life; that as long as I stay an active member of AA, more will be revealed.”

"There are always the constructive critics, our friends indeed. We should never fail to give them a careful hearing."

“Serenity and peace of mind are a direct result of accepting our lives as they are at this moment, and all the money in the world cannot purchase this kind of peace.”

“Emotional and instinctual satisfactions, I saw, were really the extra dividends of having love, offering love, and expressing a love appropriate to each relation of life.”

“When I look into the eyes of the person next to me and ask, ‘How are you?’, I will take the time to listen. I want to keep in mind that at any given time, each of us may need the same love and support as someone who is attending their first meeting.”