Quotes from Bill W.

Learning how to live in the greatest peace, partnership, and brotherhood with all men and women, of whatever description, is a moving and fascinating adventure.

Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men.

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves would restore us to sanity.

True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition is the profound desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God.

God is either everything, or He is nothing.

Honesty with ourselves & others gets us sober, but it is tolerance that keeps us that way.

Seeing is believing to most families who have lived with a drinker.

Nothing matters more to AA's future welfare than the manner in which we use the colossus of modern communication. Used unselfishly and well, it can produce results surpassing our present imagination.

In God's economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.

We lose the fear of making decisions, great and small; as we realize that should our choice prove wrong we can, if we will, learn from the experience.

Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.

We know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.

More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor

In the wake of my spiritual experience there came a vision of a society of alcoholics.

AA is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress.

I have become a pupil of the AA movement rather than the teacher.

For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong. – Bill W.

I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion we can ever know.

Nothing can be more demoralizing than a clinging and abject dependance upon another human being. This often amounts to the demand for a degree of protection and love that no one could possibly satisfy. So our hoped-for protectors finally flee, and once more we are left alone - either to grow up or to disintegrate.

Step One is about recognizing our brokenness.

The willingness to grow is the essence of all spiritual development.

Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.

Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way.

We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given to us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it.