“‘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.”

“From the cradle to the grave there is always something wrong somewhere, something to rob us of enjoying perfection, something to bother us. When we put one thing right, another will surely go wrong sooner or later. So it behooves us to enjoy every minute we can, for a minute lost is a minute gone forever.”

“There are occasions for me when I am not thinking about myself and my own reactions to events or circumstances, but have my attention fully occupied by tasks, ideas, scenes, or another person. And when I recollect these occasions, I find that they have been my happiest.”

“Worry saps me of the energy that I need for today.”

“Acceptance doesn’t mean I have to condone a particular situation, it simply means I can better assess what is going on around me without the filters of my past and without comparison to what I would consider a more ideal circumstance.”