"I am still amazed at the aura around AA meetings ... No matter what our immediate problems, fears, or resentments, we come to a halt when the meeting begins and focus on our primary purpose."

"Older AAs who know the record are unanimous in their feeling that an intelligence greater than ours has surely been at work, else we could never have avoided so many pitfalls, could never have been so happily related to our millions of friends in the outside world."

"Our mistakes of yesterday can be stepping stones for tomorrow if we do something about them today."

"Before we can be of any use to anybody else, we must find the beginnings of the answer for ourselves."

"Our Traditions are set down on paper. But they were written first in our hearts. For each of us knows, instinctively I think, that AA is not ours to do with as we please. We are but caretakers to preserve the spiritual quality of our Fellowship; keep it whole for those who will come after us and have need of what has so generously been given to us."

"The core of our AA procedure is one alcoholic talking to another, whether that be sitting on a curbstone, in a home, or at a meeting. It's the message, not the place; it's the talk, not the alms."

"Sobriety in AA is the first thing in my life that has really worked."

"Instead of debating why so many old-timers are leaving, maybe our time would be better spent in taking more responsibility and letting the old-timers know how much AA wants and needs them ... creating and maintaining environments and meetings that are attractive to their recovery."

“I go to lots of meetings. I get there early and help set up. I stay late and help clean up. I extend my hand as it was extended to me ... I’ve been given a second chance and I’m here to be of service.”

“I no longer pray to have my fear removed. Today, I pray that my love grows bigger than my fear and that my humility becomes greater than my shame.”

“On a daily basis I choose not to drink – or to fear, hate, be angry, or indulge in any other defect that’s raising its ugly head. They’re all there waiting, and when given a chance they charge into the center of my life and try to take over. But when I work Step Seven I find that my life is filled with good, and people actually like to be around me – something they never did in my drinking days.”

“If [AA] had turned out to be a government-financed project or a charitable branch of some church, my feelings about it could not have been so instantly warm and comfortable. The fact that it was just us drunks, paying our own way, lessened my shame at having to ask for help.”

“Thanks to my God, AA, and the Twelve Steps, sobriety has become the ‘easier, softer way’ for me.”

“I remember the anguish in the faces of loved ones when it seemed that their prayers for my recovery had failed. Then there was that glorious first memory of freedom, the rapture of not needing the crutch of alcohol -- the especial joys of self-forgiveness, the regeneration of hope, and the rebirth of faith. There was the bonus of self-respect, of forgiving and liking oneself as a whole person, in a whole family and a whole community.”

“I asked, ‘Is this AA?’ One man said, ‘Yes, but we ain’t got no women.’ I said, ‘You do now,’ and sat down on the couch in the front of the room.”