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“I grew up thinking that I had to perfect my personality, then I got into AA, and AA said, no, that isn’t the way we do it; only God can remove our defects. I was amazed to find that I couldn’t be a better person simply by trying harder!”

“When we consult an AA friend, we should not be reluctant to remind him of our need for full privacy. Intimate communication is normally so free and easy among us that an AA adviser may sometimes forget when we expect him to remain silent. The protective sanctity of this most healing of human relations ought never be violated.”

“The Fourth Step lets me look at myself, look into my fear of not getting something I want or of losing something I have, get a perspective on my character defects, and move forward to try to establish true partnerships with other human beings.”

“Inside of every human being there is a healing power. I had cut my finger and it had gotten well; I’d broken a bone and it had gotten well ... How come? That to me, in its simplest form, is a concept of a power greater than I am.”

“The wisdom of AA is so deep that it confines its own part in our personal recovery to nothing more than suggestion. AA leaves it entirely up to you and to me to decide, not only whether to use this program, but also how to use it.”

“I think we simply fail to recognize miracles for what they are. Sobriety -- one-day-at-a-time -- is truly a miracle.”

“Peace and enlightenment come when you stop evaluating in terms of good or bad and merely accept all of life as it is and try to learn from it.”

“If the Fourth Step is the exploration of an abandoned house, I have come to think of the Fifth Step as raising the blinds and throwing open the windows. The house has air and sunlight now, and it's no longer haunted. When people come to the door, I can welcome them without shame, and I can even invite them in. Some rooms are private of course, but none are secret, and I live in all of them.”

“The ability to love can never be taken away from me, except by me. When I can get myself out of the way long enough to love another human being, it’s the best feeling I know of.”

“With real faith we can defeat defeat.”

“In a garden we remove or control undesirable weeds; in my personal sobriety, I remove the things that have been blocking me; and in my home group, by means of group inventory, I do something about the things that cause problems. “At the group level, this might mean: 1) ensuring that the message being presented today is as good as the message that was here when we first needed it; 2) seeing to it that everyone coming through the door is given the chance to hear firsthand exactly what it is all about from persons with quality sobriety; and 3) making it known that a group is not interested in outside gobbledegook that has nothing to do with sobriety. “We can't be all things to all people, so let's do the thing we do best and that is carry the message of recovery from alcohol.”

“The sanity I’ve received through work on the Steps is far more than I could have hoped for.”

“We need to be aware not only of our limitations, defects and shortcomings, but also of our strengths, talents and successes.”

“Death isn’t quite as scary as the exhilarating terror of trying to accept life.”

“I believe in today because it is the only day in eternity that belongs to me.”