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“My drinking career was all about running away. I could pack up and vanish in a flash. Now ... I’m taking the risk to stick around, to just show up and see what happens.”

“AA does not teach us how to handle our drinking; it teaches us how to handle our sobriety.”

“When we AAs look to the future, we must always ask ourselves if the spirit which now binds us together in our common cause will always be stronger than those personal ambitions and desires which tend to drive us apart ... Though the individual AA is under no human coercion, is at almost perfect personal liberty, we have, nevertheless, achieved a wonderful unity on vital essentials. For example, the Twelve Steps of our AA program are not crammed down anybody's throat. They are not sustained by any human authority. Yet we powerfully unite around them because the truth they contain has saved our lives, has opened the door to a new world.”

“A while ago a speaker said that it was no use admitting that one was an alcoholic unless the admittance was accompanied by a realization of what being an alcoholic really meant ... He said there was no use my making the admission even in the full realization of what it meant, unless I accepted the fact that I was an alcoholic without resentment.”

“All turmoil comes from the deep, nagging feeling that we should be different from what we are ... If we could totally accept who and what we are (changing each instant), we would find ourselves moving in the silent immenseness of now.”

“As the chaotic world of the drinking alcoholic is replaced by one of stability in sobriety it becomes apparent that plans can be made to encourage positive living. For example: planning holidays, dental appointments and the household budget. We cannot plan that it will be the best holiday ever, that no dental work is required, or that our monetary fortunes will remain the same; that would be projecting. We plan plans, not results.”

“I seek strength not to be superior to my brothers, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.”

"Let us always love the best in others, and never fear their worst."

"We should always realize that change does not necessarily spell progress. We are sure that each new group of workers in world service will be tempted to try all sorts of innovations that may often produce little more than a painful repetition of earlier mistakes ... And if mistaken departures are nevertheless made, these Concepts may then provide a ready means of safe return to an operating balance that might otherwise take years of floundering to rediscover."

“There has to be something to be grateful for if I am only willing to change my attitude and look for it.”

“We have, in AA, no coercive human authority. Because each AA, of necessity, has a sensitive and responsive conscience, and because alcohol will discipline him severely if he backslides, we are finding we have little need for manmade rules or regulations.”

“AA has taught me that I’m the architect of my own success or happiness. The quality of my sobriety is up to me – it will be what I want it to be.”

“The Twelve Steps are not steps to take progressively in order to arrive at a conclusion, but a code for living -- the constitution of a way of life.”

"If I simply let go of a character defect – release it – my Higher Power will replace it with a character asset. As I release anger, I find that I am friendlier. As I release hate, I become more loving. As I release fear, I become more secure."

"Everyone must agree that we AAs are unbelievably fortunate people; fortunate that we have suffered so much; fortunate that we can know, understand and love each other so supremely well ... Indeed most of us are well aware that these are rare gifts which have their true origin in our kinship born of a common suffering and a common deliverance by the Grace of God."