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“Our fellowship has been permitted to achieve -- though still in miniature -- the ‘one world’ dream of philosophers. Ours is a world in which we can hotly differ, yet never think of schism or conflict as a solution.”

“At my very first AA meeting ... I heard words of love, understanding and compassion ... I believe the hand of God reached down at that meeting and healed me. For from that day thirty-eight years ago to this, I have not had a desire to drink or escape from reality again.”

“If all I have is a dollar in my pocket and I’m at a meeting, logic tells me to save it for myself for later. If I give it to AA, and have faith in the process, it will come back to me in ways I can’t even imagine.”

“The bottle never demanded credentials or conformity -- neither has AA.”

“We AAs are the best listeners in the world -- that is, when we’re not talking!”

“It is tradition among us that the individual has the unlimited right to his own opinion on any subject under the sun. He is compelled to agree with no one; if he likes, he can disagree with everyone.”

“Great modesty and humility are needed by every AA for his own permanent recovery. If these virtues are such vital needs to the individual, so must they be to AA as a whole.”

“I learned that if I had the capacity to be honest, I would get better.”

“I continue to attend AA meetings because anything I know about recovery seems to have a shelf-life of 72 hours.”

“Sobriety in AA is the first thing in my life that has really worked.”

 “Instead of debating why so many old-timers are leaving, maybe our time would be better spent in taking more responsibility and letting the old-timers know how much AA wants and needs them... creating and maintaining environments and meetings that are attractive to their recovery.”

"Spirituality makes it possible for me to work for others and to try and help them. It can give me the courage to take good care of myself -- to go to meetings even when I don’t think I need a meeting, to speak up when my alcoholism wants to keep my pain to myself, to talk at a gut-honest level to my sponsor and to the people in my group about painful matters I would rather keep hidden."

“In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober.”

“AA’s message promises healing and wholeness for any alcoholic who will pay the price. The price is simply to accept the help that will save our lives.”

“What I did need and need desperately, was not more knowledge about God, but, with God’s help, a deep and penetrating knowledge about myself.”