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“When we concentrate on loving those we think are unlovable, we find out how expansive love is.”

“In the Twelve Steps, AA offers not a theory, not a hypothesis, not a pious hope, not -- thank God -- wistful or wishful thinking, but an historical record of how more than 25,000 [now over 2,000,000] alcoholics achieved sobriety.”

“I am responsible for reporting for duty and making the effort to overcome the adversity, and in so doing to overcome myself.”

“Whatever strengthens the spirituality of the group strengthens my spirituality, and vice versa.”

“Truly transforming spiritual experiences are nearly always founded on calamity and collapse.”

“I pray that I may continue to grow in unselfishness, enough to care about the lives of all alcoholics, wherever they may be -- those that are with us and those yet to come.”

"Change is scary, even if it promises a better life."

“As we listen to one another’s anxieties and problems, we understand that it’s not what’s happening to you ... it is how you cope with it, survive it, and don’t give up and drink over it ... dashed career hopes, unrequited love, crippling disease, poverty, approaching death. Together we face it, equipped only with the vast, previously undiscovered resources of power within us, which faced and conquered alcoholism for us.”

“The AA message is a message from one amateur to another.”

“Ego was being replaced with self-respect ... resentment and hatred were being replaced with tolerance and understanding ... fear was being replaced with trust ... loneliness and self-pity were being replaced with gratitude and love -- all because I was working the program to the best of my ability and wasn’t drinking.”

“AA membership cannot depend upon any particular belief whatever ... our Twelve Steps contain no article of religious faith except faith in God – as each of us understands him.”

“Not drinking is the first requirement for joy; the second requirement is gratitude.”

“Not only ... could spiritual experiences make people saner, they could transform men and women so that they could do, feel, and believe what had hitherto been impossible to them. It mattered little whether these awakenings were sudden or gradual; their variety could be almost infinite.”

“Happiness or tragedy might just depend upon a slight sign of recognition, a nod of the head or perhaps a friendly smile.”

“My past sobriety is not a ticket to future sobriety. I have to pay that fare and make the decision to recover daily.”