“By working with others I’m allowed to witness the miracle of sobriety and observe the twinkling eyes as others learn to speak the language of the heart.”

“As drinking alcoholics, we all ran from life and toward death. When we join AA, we reverse the process – we give ourselves to life as it is, rather than as we would like it to be.”

“There is one job that we can do superlatively well, and there isn’t anything that can keep us from doing it if we are serious in wanting to. That is the job we do on ourselves, inside ourselves. It means clearing out a whole mess of false values, unrealistic ambitions, and worn-out resentments, and putting in their place the qualities we want to have – kindness, tolerance, friendliness ... We can begin to see what the real values of life are, and they are very different from the hazy, distorted dreams we had.”

"We should always realize that change does not necessarily spell progress. We are sure that each new group of workers in world service will be tempted to try all sorts of innovations that may often produce little more than a painful repetition of earlier mistakes ... And if mistaken departures are nevertheless made, these Concepts may then provide a ready means of safe return to an operating balance that might otherwise take years of floundering to rediscover."

“All I had to do was ask myself a simple question: ‘Am I or am I not powerless over alcohol?’ I didn’t have to compare myself or my experience with anyone, just answer a simple question.”

“It is when you let truth go into action, and hurl your life after your held conception of truth, that things start to happen.”

“The road to spiritual and emotional recovery ... has taken diverse routes – lots of meetings, readings, talks with AA members, discussion groups, psychotherapy, and the beginning of sharing. The keys seemed to be listening and sharing – the spirit at work.”

“Ever fresh in my heart is a song of thanksgiving for my expanding sobriety, as the opening door to timeless truth.”

“AA is spiritual, is the eye of the hurricane, is my refuge and my comfort ... Thanks to AA for making a place for broken hearts and wounded souls.”

“We now fully realize that 100 percent personal anonymity before the public is just as vital to the life of AA as 100 percent sobriety is to the life of each and every member.”

“Not picking up a drink creates infinite possibilities for me ... Who knows? This could be the greatest day of my life.”

“The Steps will speak to my condition wherever I am in sobriety.”

“I realized that it is possible to believe in a Higher Power, in the efficacy of prayer and meditation, in making a conscious contact with a Higher Power as those concepts, privately understood – or not understood – are suggested in AA, without the loss of one iota of my precious identity.”

“We organize our principles merely so that they can be better understood, and we continue so to organize our services that AA’s life-blood can be transfused into those who must otherwise die. That is the all-in-all of AA’s ‘organization.’ There can never be any more than this.”

“I don’t believe I drank to get drunk, but always to seek in the next drink that peace for which a sick soul seems to thirst.”