#1
We of Alcoholics Anonymous,
are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered
from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.

pg xiii




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#2
Men have cried out to me
in sincere and despairing appeal:
"Doctor I cannot go on like this!
I have everything to live for!
I must stop, but I cannot!
You must help me!"

pg xxix


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#3
There I humbly offered myself to G-d, as I then understood Him,
to do with me as He would.
I placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction.
I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing;
that without Him I was lost.
I ruthlessly faced my sins
and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch.
I have not had a drink since.

pg. 13


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#4
we had come to believe in
the hopelessness
and futility
of life as we had been living it.

pg. 25


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#5
When a person offended
we said to ourselves,
"This is a sick man.
How can I be helpful to him?
G-d save me from being angry.
Thy will be done."

pg. 67


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#6
The alcoholic is like a tornado
roaring his way through the lives of others.
Hearts are broken.
Sweet relationships are dead.
Affections have been uprooted.
Selfish and inconsiderate habits have kept the home in turmoil.

pg. 82


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#7
we pause, when agitated or doubtful,
and ask for the right thought or action.
We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show,
humbly saying to ourselves many times each day
"Thy will be done."
We are then in much less danger of excitement,
fear,
anger,
worry,
self-pity,
or foolish decisions.

pg. 87


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#8
He clamors for this or that,
claiming he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for.
Nonsense.
Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth:
Job or no job--
wife or no wife--
we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on G-d.

pg. 98


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#9
Assuming we are spiritually fit,
we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do.
People have said we must not go where liquor is served;
we must not have it in our homes...
our friends must hide their bottles if we got to their houses;
we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all.
Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so.
We meet these conditions every day.
An alcoholic who cannot meet them,
still has an alcoholic mind;
there is something the matter with his spiritual status...
In our belief
any scheme of combating alcoholism
which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation
is doomed to failure.
If the alcoholic tries to shield himself he may succeed for a time,
but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion than ever.
We have tried these methods.
These attempts to do the impossible have always failed.
So our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking,
if we have a legitimate reason for being there...
To a person who has had experience with an alcoholic,
this may seem like tempting Providence,
but it isn't.

pages 100 - 101


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