“The Twelve Steps are deceptively simple but provide limitless spiritual growth for anyone with the patience to stay the course.”

 “We sense that here in AA this shared darkness has become a shared light.”

“I ask the newcomer to help me wash the coffeepot, or put chairs away, because service was, and still is, my key to belonging.”

“I was amazed at the things I was grateful for: those painful situations that served to show me my character defects; the ability to accept and share my pain with others; the opportunities to do things I was afraid to do which gave me strength and confidence.”

“To be happily sober, we must be active -- and this does not necessarily mean group activity. The Loner is part of a much larger group of people in far distant places, all members of AA with the same problems, fears, and happiness to be shared ... I may not be in face-to-face contact with other AA members, but my real friends in AA are too many to enumerate, and I find there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all I should.”

“Recovery is giving it away. If you don’t give it away you can’t have it ... Be part of the pipeline.”

“Difficult times bring us to new degrees of acceptance and humility because we learn on a deeper level how close we really are to our next drink. If we hang on, we learn how the grace of the Fellowship and the principles of the program carry us through the tough spots as well as the times of joy.”

“I began to find ... a more centered, purposeful life, at least in the sense that my body, mind, emotions, and soul were all more or less heading in the same direction. I was riding one horse instead of four.”

“The greatest promise in the program is the one in the Twelfth Step. It tells me I will have a spiritual awakening as the result of the Steps. I know I need that awakening to have a chance to stay sober.”

“I sabotage myself if I attach my sobriety to people, places, or things.”

“Only the sharing of despair can bring us ... illumination.”

“No matter how truthful the words of my message, there could be no deep communication if what I said and did was colored by pride, arrogance, intolerance, resentment, imprudence, or desire for personal acclaim -- even though I was largely unconscious of these attitudes.”

“Some of us take a long time to ‘come to’ before we can ‘come to believe’ that there is any hope for us.”

“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

“Certainly, we need leaders, but we must regard them as the human agent of the Higher Power and not with undue adulation as individuals.”