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“I was amazed at the things I was grateful for: those painful situations that served to show me my character defects; the ability to accept and share my pain with others; the opportunities to do things I was afraid to do which gave me strength and confidence.”

“The Twelve Steps are deceptively simple but provide limitless spiritual growth for anyone with the patience to stay the course.”

“Recovery is giving it away. If you don’t give it away you can’t have it ... Be part of the pipeline.”

“I ask the newcomer to help me wash the coffeepot, or put chairs away, because service was, and still is, my key to belonging.”

“We sense that here in AA this shared darkness has become a shared light.”

“I began to find ... a more centered, purposeful life, at least in the sense that my body, mind, emotions, and soul were all more or less heading in the same direction. I was riding one horse instead of four.”

“Difficult times bring us to new degrees of acceptance and humility because we learn on a deeper level how close we really are to our next drink. If we hang on, we learn how the grace of the Fellowship and the principles of the program carry us through the tough spots as well as the times of joy.”

“The greatest promise in the program is the one in the Twelfth Step. It tells me I will have a spiritual awakening as the result of the Steps. I know I need that awakening to have a chance to stay sober.”

“I sabotage myself if I attach my sobriety to people, places, or things.”

“Only the sharing of despair can bring us ... illumination.”

“No matter how truthful the words of my message, there could be no deep communication if what I said and did was colored by pride, arrogance, intolerance, resentment, imprudence, or desire for personal acclaim -- even though I was largely unconscious of these attitudes.”

“Certainly, we need leaders, but we must regard them as the human agent of the Higher Power and not with undue adulation as individuals.”

“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

“Some of us take a long time to ‘come to’ before we can ‘come to believe’ that there is any hope for us.”

“Anonymity is a spiritual foundation not only of Tradition Twelve, but of sobriety itself.”