Search

“Alcohol in Latin is spiritus, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum.”

“I have learned how to place principles before personalities, begun to understand that it’s okay for me to be wrong, and that it is also all right for me to allow others to be wrong and to make mistakes. Learning to let go is a huge part of service work on all levels.”

“I do not agree that the newcomer is the most important member at any meeting ... Equally important are those old-timers who showed me the way, and any middle-timer who may be today suffering. If newcomers are indeed the lifeblood of AA, old- and middle-timers are its skin and backbone.”

“I have often seen our Society timid and fearful, angry and prideful, apathetic and indifferent. But I have also seen these negatives fade as the lessons of experience were learned and gladly applied.”

“Alcoholics Anonymous was nurtured in its early days around a kitchen table ... True, we have progressed materially to better furniture and more comfortable surroundings. Yet the kitchen table must ever be appropriate for us. It is the perfect symbol of simplicity.”

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

“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.”

“We cannot wholly rely on friends to solve all our difficulties. A good adviser will never do all our thinking for us. He knows that each final choice must be ours.”

“No one can express love and self-pity at the same moment; showing concern for others helps us to see how foolish we have been.”

“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.”

“The road to spiritual and emotional recovery ... has taken diverse routes – lots of meetings, readings, talks with AA members, discussion groups, psychotherapy, and the beginning of sharing. The keys seemed to be listening and sharing – the spirit at work.”

“All I had to do was ask myself a simple question: ‘Am I or am I not powerless over alcohol?’ I didn’t have to compare myself or my experience with anyone, just answer a simple question.”

“It is when you let truth go into action, and hurl your life after your held conception of truth, that things start to happen.”