“The word ‘alcoholic’ does not turn me off anymore; in fact, it is music to my ears when it applies to me.”

“While wealth and authority lie at the foundation of many a noble institution, we of AA now apprehend, and thoroughly well, that these things are not for us. Have we not found that one man's meat is often another man's poison?”

“We are not a sociological entity, although sociologists find us fascinating. We are not a therapy group, although remarkable healing takes place among us. And we are not a religion, even though some people want to see us as such ... We are a spiritual entity.”

“AA is not a separate country, cut off from the mainland of the real world; it is the schoolroom I missed somewhere along the line ... a treasure house of other people’s experience, strength and hope.”

“I have learned in the program not to listen to the voice of my ego when it starts whispering things.”

“The most beautiful gifts of my life come to me in packages I do not recognize at first glance. In fact, I often don’t see them until I’ve stumbled over them. Yet I know that when I go about my business in service to AA and to others these gifts will appear, usually in the most unexpected places.”

“I am thankful to God for all that I have, and for all that I don’t have.”

“I have learned to keep quiet when I disagree and to give others freedom to express opinions widely different from my own -- without giving in to the urge to enlighten them. I am grateful for all the voices of AA.”

“Groups change, just like people do, and we AAs fight change. Although we can never go back to the way it once was, we will survive -- yea, even thrive -- as long as we remember Tradition Five, ‘Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose -- that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.’”

“Spirituality makes it possible for me to work for others and to try and help them. It can give me the courage to take good care of myself -- to go to meetings even when I don’t think I need a meeting, to speak up when my alcoholism wants to keep my pain to myself, to talk at a gut-honest level to my sponsor and to the people in my group about painful matters I would rather keep hidden.”

“In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober.”

“AA’s message promises healing and wholeness for any alcoholic who will pay the price. The price is simply to accept the help that will save our lives.”

“What I did need and need desperately, was not more knowledge about God, but, with God’s help, a deep and penetrating knowledge about myself.”

“Emotional balance is very much like balancing on a bicycle -- it is more a matter of what I don’t do than what I do do ... Watch someone balance on a bike. It looks as if it would be difficult, but, in fact, it is a mindless and effortless achievement. Happiness, joy, and freedom are the same, aren’t they?”

“I’m glad we have both conservatives and enthusiasts. They teach us much. The conservative will surely see to it that the AA movement never gets overly organized. But the promoter will continue to remind us of our terrific obligation to the newcomer and to those hundreds of thousands of alcoholics still waiting all over the world to hear of AA.”