“I believe anyone can be helped if they have an honest desire to stop drinking. I’m living proof.”

“I could do something about changing my own thoughts, but nothing about changing the people around me.”

“I do not need to make amends on my hands and knees; I need to walk tall, without false pride. When I go in humility and sincerely ask people to forgive me, this will remove the burden from my shoulders.”

“Habits are like cork or lead -- they tend to keep you up or hold you down.”

“Alcoholism is relieved of its power when honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness combine within me to change my question from ‘Why?’ to ‘How?’ Then, I can get into the stream of life and out of my own way.”

“We began to see adversity as a God-given opportunity to develop the kind of courage which is born of humility, rather than bravado. Thus we were enabled to accept ourselves, our circumstances, and our fellows.”

“I no longer always have to be right.”

“Compromise comes hard to us ‘all-or-nothing drunks.’ Nevertheless, we must never lose sight of the fact that progress is nearly always characterized by a series of improving compromises.”

“Putting principles before personalities, both inside and outside the Fellowship, does not always endear me to everyone, but I would rather be disliked for what I am than liked for what I am not.”

“It’s true that the only requirement for membership in AA is a desire to stop drinking. But if you absolutely want a better life, well, hmmm ... How’s this? Working the Steps with a sponsor is a really good idea.”

“What is involved in taking the entire AA program, as the early AAs gave it to us, is not the prospect of turning into some sort of repulsive goody-goody. It’s the threat of being truly alive, aware, and perhaps even ecstatic.”

“There is among us AAs the ever present need for further spiritual growth.”

“It has only been in the past few months that I have become interested in service work in AA. Before that, I was an AA barnacle, glued to my seat, criticizing the speakers and griping about the coffee. Now I’m on the other side of the squawks and bleeps, and I find, to my delight, I like it.”

“The future would ... lack its full use and meaning did it not bring us fresh problems and even acute perils – problems and perils through which we can grow into true greatness of action and spirit.”

“What counts is not that which can be held in the hand but that which can be held in the heart.”