“Truly transforming spiritual experiences are nearly always founded on calamity and collapse.”

“I pray that I may continue to grow in unselfishness, enough to care about the lives of all alcoholics, wherever they may be -- those that are with us and those yet to come.”

"Change is scary, even if it promises a better life."

“As we listen to one another’s anxieties and problems, we understand that it’s not what’s happening to you ... it is how you cope with it, survive it, and don’t give up and drink over it ... dashed career hopes, unrequited love, crippling disease, poverty, approaching death. Together we face it, equipped only with the vast, previously undiscovered resources of power within us, which faced and conquered alcoholism for us.”

“I am finally leaning really to live one day at a time and to appreciate and be alert to the beautiful, marvel-filled, albeit sometimes infuriating world around me. This is a startlingly pleasant reward.”

"When I begin to look where the answer really is -- inside of me -- I get a sense of 'rightness' when I speak or hear the truth. Step Six helps me develop a sense of intuition that I can truly count on."

“I pray for the willingness to listen carefully to everyone I encounter, for some may have the words I need to hear.”

“When faith has entered the front door of our hearts, fear goes out the back.”

“The place to start in achieving an informed group conscience is with myself.”

“My energy is now my own. I don’t have to spend it on being angry and negative ... There’s no longer that terrible rush to judgment”

“I have a feeling that if I ever find myself in Heaven, it will be from backing away from Hell.”

“After telling Dr. Bob my story, I explained how truly I needed him. Would he allow me to help him, I might remain sober myself. The seed that was to flower as AA began to grow toward the light.”

“Simple gratitude compels us all to be mindful of the needs of others and to work in the ways and through the means developed by the AA movement to try to reach some of the millions of our fellow alcoholics who are still suffering in the hell from which we have escaped.”

“Where before there was a gaping hole of emptiness, I seek within me that faint ember of self-love, self-worth, and desire for goodness.”

“We are alcoholics. Even though now recovered, we are never too far removed from the possibility of fresh personal disaster. Each knows he must observe a high degree of honesty, humility, and tolerance, or else drink again.”