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

For me, there is a direct coupling of the Tenth Step and Step Two. The more sanity, the quicker the admission that I am wrong. It is much easier today to get rid of an overreaction at the thought level before it becomes a spoken word and then a physical act. “Now I can see that sanity is steadily being restored to me so that I can use the other Steps to greater advantage.”

“There will be love and laughter and a delicious sense of well-being down deep inside if you will abandon yourself to the business of recovery -- not just recovery from the disease of active alcoholism, but deeper than that, recovery from a former self.”

“It seems the more I give to Alcoholics Anonymous, the better my life gets.”

“‘Let us always love the best in others -- and never fear their worst.’”

“I’m free to be the person I’ve always wanted to be, but never before had the courage to become.”

“I need grace to recover happily, to be comfortable in my sobriety, and to be able to help others do the same.”

“What profiteth it a man if he has gained sobriety and lost his sense of humor?”

“Our personal ambitions will have to be set aside every time they conflict with the safety or the effectiveness of our Fellowship ... We must sometimes love our Society more than ourselves.”

“I recalled the part of chapter five that says ‘no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.’ And that God could and would, if he were sought. This became my answer. “I sent God into those dark places within my subconscious. It was there I seemed to store painful memories, those of my childhood in an alcoholic home, and those of my own alcoholism and drug abuse ‘adventures.’ I asked my Higher Power to take his healing light into those painful areas of my subconscious that seemed to be carefully and deeply buried.”

“If in order to get into AA we had had to meet any standards more rigid than the one given in the Third Tradition, who of us would be alive? Think of all the wonderful people, including the nonconformists, eccentrics, and kooks who make such valuable additions to our number, who would have been kept out of AA if we had any requirement for membership other than a desire to get well.”

“I have learned through crises and through joy.”

“Nothing seems to help me more than being reminded where I came from, and the kind of person I used to be while under the influence of alcohol -- that sad, fearful, undependable sort of person I will become again, unless I start to focus on my needs instead of my wants.”

“Even in self-protection, we do not wish to erect the slightest barrier between ourselves and the fellow alcoholic who still suffers. We know that society has been demanding that he conform to its laws and conventions. But the essence of his alcoholic malady is the fact that he has been unable or unwilling to conform either to the laws of man or God. If he is anything, the sick alcoholic is a rebellious nonconformist. How well we understand that.”

“Today I can look upon myself and others with understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, and love ... Recovery is a wonderland.”