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

“Life is travel -- enjoy the journey, bumpy roads and all.”

“One night after a Step Two meeting, I decided to find out what those courageous early members who put our Twelve Steps together really meant by sanity. I was a little surprised to find that my dictionary defined it as the quality of being sound of mind, sound of judgment, reasonable and rational in one’s thoughts ... As I sat there mulling over the definition, an idea occurred to me: ‘This is what I’m to be restored to -- sound, reasonable, rational thinking.’”

“We of AA can never set any hampering limitation upon the ultimate destiny of ourselves and our Fellowship, nor any whatever upon God’s love for us all. Individually and collectively, structurally and spiritually, we shall ever need to build for the future.”

“While I’ve never been sober today before, I count on my Higher Power to keep me sober as he has done on all those other days before.”

“Be willing to be willing to follow directions and you will find your life changing in all areas.”

“What matters is what works, not my opinion of what works.”

“If you need a friend who understands, look no further than the rooms of AA and the Big Book. They always hold an answer and some faith for me.”

“The Secret is, there is no Secret! Working the Steps with a sponsor, going to meetings, helping others, and above all, keeping God and sobriety first have kept me sober almost five years now. I always had heard that things in plain sight are the hardest to find!”

“Clearly, the chief mark of restoration to sanity is our not taking the first drink.”

“A vast communications net now covers the earth, even to its remotest reaches ... Nothing can matter more to the future welfare of AA than the manner in which we use this colossus of communication. Used unselfishly and well, the results can surpass our present imagination. Should we handle this great instrument badly, we shall be shattered by the ego demands of our own people -- often with the best of intention on their part.”

“From the moment I pulled open the doors to my very first meeting, I felt something different, something good was going to happen. Those doors, which at the time I believed to be the heaviest ever made, allowed me to walk into a new way of life.”

“Empathy, not sympathy or pity, is the most useful quality a sponsor can cultivate.”

“With respect to its own affairs, the collective conscience of the group will, given time, almost surely demonstrate its perfect dependability. The group conscience will, in the end, prove a far more infallible guide for group affairs than the decision of any individual member, however good or wise he may be.”

“If I want to be a leader, I have to do more than just find out in which direction the mob is moving and then get out in front of it ... Leadership involves significant sacrifice of personal goals and ambitions. A person really needs to have Tradition Two right at the center ... Personal pettiness just has no place in leadership.”