"When you're home by yourself you're behind enemy lines." 
"If you share your pain you cut it in half, if you don't you double it." 
"If you don't want what we have, go back out to what you had." 
"There's no elevator, you have to take the steps." 
"AA is not for people who need it, it's for people who want it." 
"Part of compliance is defiance, but you must arrive at acceptance of the
disease." 
"I'm an egomaniac with an inferiority complex." 
"My head is like a bad neighborhood and I shouldn't go in there alone." 
"Religion is for people who are afraid they'll go to hell. Spirituality is
for people who have been there." 
"I'm not going to give anybody free rent in my head." 
"I was hopelessly dopeful...now I'm dopelessly hopeful." 
"I used to be a hopeless dope fiend, now I'm a dopeless hope fiend." 
"I need to put things in perspective because I have a disease of
perception." 
"An alcoholic is chosen to find God." 
"The quality of your recovery is proportional to the quality of your
surrender." 
"I'm a W.C.S. person. That's Worst Case Scenario." 
"I'm basically a negative person, that's why I'm so happy." 
"Untreated alcoholism without the steps on a daily basis will make my past
my future." 
"Uncover...Discover...Discard." 
"Those who relapse are attending powerlessness graduate school." 
"This program changes the way I relate to me. That's what I'm trying to
do, change the way I relate to me." 
"If you commit suicide you're killing the wrong person." 
"If you're not moving away from a drink you're moving closer to it." 
"I've been beating up on myself so much I feel like hitting myself." 
"A critic is a person who goes onto the battlefield after the battle has
been fought and shoots the survivors." 
"AA is not a program to get sober...it's a program to live your life
successfully and to be happy once you get sober." 
"I'd never trade my worst day sober for my best day drunk." 
"Being an alcoholic does not give me the excuse to act alcoholically." 
"I worked my using hard, so now I want to work my sobriety hard." 
"The shortest sentence in the Big Book is, "It Works." 
"The power behind me is greater than the problem in front of me." 
"When you're in fear you're not in faith." 
"A fear faced is a fear erased." 
"Every time I draw a sober breath I'm like a fish out of water." 
"I was a scream in search of a mouth." 
"I didn't make it all the way to the beach to drown in the sand." 
"Drinking gave me the illusion that I might be alive." (Chekhov, Uncle
Vanya) 
"I am one drink away from never being sober again for the rest of my
life." 
"Praying is asking God for help, meditating is listening for God's
answer." 
"The reason I'm here is because I'm not all there." 
"Put your chip under your tongue and if it dissolves you can take another
drink." 
"My biggest problem was bottles of the two-legged variety." 
"My basic problem is that I flee from those who want me and I pursue the
rejectors." 
"When I live in the past, I live in regret. When I live in the future, I
live in fear. When I stay in the NOW, everything's always okay." (from
Joan T.) 
"If I could drink socially I'd get drunk every night." 
"There's no speeding in the trudging zone." 
"Having a resentment is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to
die." 
"Courage is fear in action." 
"Had the eyes no tears, the soul would have no rainbow." (from Teresa) 
"God will heal your broken heart, if you will give Him all the pieces."
(from Teresa) 
"My life hereafter is from this moment on." 
"We are attracted to people who share in our growth and progress and lose
interest in those who don't." 
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that
something else is more important than fear." (Ambrose Redmoon) 
"Self will imprisoned me far more than bars ever did." 
"I've definitely got the "ism" in alcoholism...that's incredibly short
memory." 
"I had to learn how to float in this program because I'm a sinker." 
On relapse: "I never did anything in moderation...except maybe the steps." 
"Bring the body and the mind follows." 
"It's not the load that breaks you down...it's the way you carry it." 
"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still
an evil." (Max Lerner) 
"If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane." 
"Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path." 
(Ralph Waldo Emerson) 
"Life is not so much a matter of position as of disposition." 
"Seven days without a meeting makes one weak." (from Herb B.) 
Regarding hanging out at bars: "If you hang out at the barbershop long
enough you're bound to get a haircut." (from Bill G.) 
On relapse: "I never did anything in moderation...especially the steps." 
"Bring the body and the mind follows." 
"Tomorrow's a fantasy and yesterday's gone...there's only today." 
"Thank you, God, for the beautiful day I'm going to have if I can just get
rid of my fucking attitude." 
"We're sick people trying to get better, not bad people trying to be
good." 
"When you've got one foot in yesterday and the other in tomorrow, you can
only piss on today." (from Steve and Anjanette) 
"The only way to have gratitude is to live in the now, not in the past or
the future." 
"I didn't get my life back in this program...I got my life for the first
time." 
"I never had a problem that was worse than the old solution I found for
it." 
"What other people think of you is none of your business." 
"If it wasn't for denial my life would be shit." 
"Change only happens when the pain of holding on is greater than the fear
of letting go." 
"An expectation is a premeditated resentment." 
"I used to shoot up and throw up, now I suit up and show up." (David F.) 
"If you can't love everybody today, at least try not to hurt anybody." 
"The reasonable person adapts to society. An unreasonable person adapts
society." (Terry M.) 
"Give us the fortitude to endure the things which cannot be changed, and
the courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom
to know one from the other." (Oliver J. Hart) 
"If it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter." 
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people
always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can
become great." (Mark Twain) 
"My sobriety depends on who God is, not who I am." (Duane M.) 
"You cannot save your ass and your face at the same time." (Dennis K.) 
"Cash register honesty is easier than being honest with yourself, because
at least you know the rules." (Ginger) 
"Acceptance without gratitude is bullshit." 
"You're not responsible for your disease, but you are responsible for your
behavior." 
"If you don't want what we have, we will cheerfully refund your misery." 
"Have a nice day unless you've made other plans." 
"If you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it." 
"Now that I'm sober I hit my knees in a different way than I used to."
(Jay) 
"Work to become, not to acquire." (Elbert Hubbard) 
Regarding believing in God: "Pretend. Act as if. Fake it until you make
it." 
"Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small
jumps." (David Lloyd George) 
On the hopelessness of addiction from somebody who is still using: "I used
to think there was light at the end of the tunnel, but for me today the
light is on a locomotive headed right for me." 
The value of the average conversation could be enormously improved by the
constant use of four simple words: "I do not know." (Andre Maurois) 
"Living our pre-AA active daily lifestyle was akin to switching seats on
the Titanic." 
"You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails." 
"Yes, you can be a dreamer and a doer too, if you will remove one word
from your vocabulary: impossible." (Robert Schuller) 
"If triangles had a God, he would have 3 sides." (Montesquieu) 
"Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same
oven." (Yiddish proverb) 
"Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision
in the low time." (Robert Schuller) 
"Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present."
(Albert Camus) 
"Behaviorism is the art of pulling habits out of rats." (O'Neill) 
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches,
but reveal to them their own." (Disraeli) 
"The worst of all deceptions is self-deception." (Plato) 
"Whenever you fall, pick something up." (Oswald Avery) 
"If you continually give you will continually have." 
"He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind he has
descended into the secrets of all minds." (Emerson) 
"It is easier to get forgiveness than permission." (Cecile Stewart) 
"Fear knocked on my door...I opened it and there was nobody there." 
"Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it." 
The most important word in the Steps is the first one... "WE" 
"The world ain't gonna kiss my butt just because I'm getting sober." 
"My mind is out to get me." 
"A recovering alcoholic without a sponsor is much like leaving Dracula in
charge of the blood bank." 
"Relapse starts long before the drink is drunk." 
"First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink
takes the man." 
The secret to long term sobriety: Don't drink, don't die. 
"If from the skies fall lemons, make lemonade." (Gabriel G.) 
"Don't let the limits of your imagination block you from what God can do
for you." (Suzanne) 
"Angels fly because they take themselves so lightly." 
"I have a very high pain threshold and a very low fear threshold." 
"I always look for the hardest way to do the easiest thing." (Jay M.) 
"If you don't grow, you go." 
"If you don't hear what you need to hear, say what you need to hear." 
"we shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will
be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time..."
(T.S. Elliot) 
"Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or
last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory." (Betty
Smith) 
"Nothing contributes more to peace of soul than having no opinion at all." 
(George Christopher Lichtenberg) 
"We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in
the world." (Helen Keller) 
"Fear is a darkroom for developing negatives." 
"I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have
things I am not able to appreciate." (Elbert Hubbard) 
"A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor." 
"When you starve with a tiger, the tiger starves last." (Griffin's
Thought) 
"While I'm in a meeting, my disease is out in the parking lot doing
push-ups." (Mike M.) 
"When I moved in sobriety, I went to the meetings and thought,'Oh, you do
things differently here...i.e., wrong.'" (Mike M.) 
"Laziness is no more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
(Jules Renard) 
"Democracy is where you can say what you think even if you don't think." 
"It is not length of life, but depth of life." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) 
Two step formula for handling stress: 1. Don't sweat the small stuff. 2.
Remember that it's all small stuff. (Anthony Robbins) 
"The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self-awareness." (the 
character Annie Savoy in the film Bull Durham) 
"Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf." (American Indian Proverb) 
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble
a nail." (Abraham Maslow) 
Deja Fu: The feeling that somehow, somewhere, you've been kicked in the
head like this before. 
"A day without sunshine is like night." 
"He who dies with the most toys, is, nonetheless, still dead." 
ON HUMILITY: "To err is human, to moo bovine." 
ON PROPHECY: "The meek shall inherit the earth -- they are too weak to
refuse." 
"People that don't go to meetings, don't hear about what happens to people
that don't go to meetings." (Phil A.) 
"You can't think your way into right living...you have to live your way
into right thinking." (Pat H.) 
"If you're not enjoying this program, maybe you're not working it right."
(Pat H.) 
"If you find working the steps too hard, try living them instead...that's
where the real joy in the program lies." (Pat H.) 
"If you wanna make God laugh, tell him YOUR plans for the day." (Bob B.) 
"United we stand; divided we stagger." 
"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give
possesses you." (Andre Gide) 
"If you truly want to understand something, try to change it. " (Kurt
Lewin) 
"He who foresees calamities suffers them twice over." 
"He who no's himself is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." 
"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your
enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill) 
"There is an easy answer to your problem that is neat, plausible, and
wrong." 
"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing
left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." (Antoine de
Saint-Exup'ery) 
"Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation." 
"Nervousness is just God trying to shake the truth out of you." 
"Belief without action is the ruin of the soul." (Edward Abbey) 
"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough." 
"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence." 
"Our defects of character are the bars of a cage. The central point is not
to study the bars, but to get out of the cage." 
"Recovery is a journey between two stations. One station represents total
chaos, and the other represents total serenity. What is important is not
where you are, but what direction you are facing." 
Life without recovery: Even roses have thorns. Life in recovery: Even
thorns have roses. 
"If you do not know where you are going, then any road will take you
there." (David L.) 
"The slogans work much better for me when I decorate my life with them
rather than decorating the walls with them." (Jenn K.) 
"The most natural state of an alcoholic is irritable, restless, and
discontented." 
"We are human BEings, not human DOings." 
"Recognizing someone else's human dignity cannot cost you your own." 
"I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy than a bottle in front of me." 
"If you don't want what we have, your misery can be refunded." 
"Funny...I ruined my health by drinking to other's!" 
"Don't Entertain The Thought." 
"Progress Not Perfection." 
"The chains of alcohol are too light to be felt until they are too strong
to be broken." 
"I didn't get into trouble every time I drank, but every time I got into
trouble I was drinking. 
"Happiness is not a place you arrive at, it is a way you travel." 
"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes." (Marcel Proust) 
"Is it not better to aim your spear at the moon and strike only an eagle,
than to aim your spear at the eagle, and strike only a rock?" 
"If your ass falls off, put it in a paper bag and take it to a meeting." 
"If my brain didn't need me for transportation, it would have killed me a
long time ago!" 
"If you're not a lion tamer, don't go into the lion's den." 
"You can't speed up your recovery, but you sure can slow it down." 
"If I don't let go, I lose my grip." 
"If God is your co-pilot, SWITCH SEATS!" 
"It's 11:00, do you know where your brain is?" 
"Talk does not cook rice." 
New York Steps 1, 2, and 3: "I can't, He can, so let Him!" 
"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always
got." 
"We'll love you until you learn to love yourself." 
"Don't give up before the miracle happens." 
"Unless I accept my virtues, I will be overwhelmed with my faults." 
"Pray daily, God is easier to talk to than most people." 
"Willpower tells me I must, but willingness tells me I can." 
"Emotions aren't facts." 
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself
less." 
"If GOD drives you out, BOOZE will bring you back." 
"You can't think your way into a new way of living...you have to live your
way into a new way of thinking!" 
"No God, no peace...Know God, know peace." 
"It's not the yets we have to worry about, it's the again's." 
"Rejection is God's protection." 
INTIMACY = In-to-me-I-see 
"ME + U is a power greater than ME. U + US is a power greater than U." 
"Winners do what they have to do and losers do what they want to do." 
"It is easier to stay sober than to get sober." 
"My anxiety is in my indecision." 
"Whatever you put before your sobriety; you shall surely lose." 
"Why put off today, what you can put off tomorrow." 
"He who fails to plan, plans to fail." 
"Anything worth doing well, is well worth overdoing." 
"Nothing changes if nothing changes." 
"Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?" 
"The only weapon that becomes sharper with constant use is the tongue." 
"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true
strength." 
(Ralph Sockman) 
"Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that
nothing is." (Thomas Szasz) 
"To gain that worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else." 
(Bernadette Devlin) 
"The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise
than saved by criticism." 
"Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own.
You may both be wrong." (Dandemis) 
"Reputation: what others are not thinking about you." 
"The only time you don't fail is the last time you try anything - and it
works. 
(William Strong) 
"It's not a matter of where you stand but in what direction you're
headed." 
"May you live all the days of your life." (Jonathan Swift) 
"He who foresees calamities suffers them twice over." 
"When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares
that it is his duty." (George Bernard Shaw) 
"Don't mistake pleasure for happiness. They're a different breed of dog."
(Josh Billings) 
"Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise." (Lord
Chesterfield) 
"Swing hard, in case they throw the ball where you're swinging." (Duke
Snider) 
"If you judge, investigate." (Seneca) 
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." 
(Mark Twain) 
"Friendship is like money, easier made than kept." (Samuel Butler) 
"The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up
there." 
(Robert M. Pirsig) 
"I'm not much, but I'm all I think about." 
"Don't let the urgent get in the way of the important." 
"People who relapse usually do so because they accepted the things they
could have changed." 
"AA is not for people who need it. AA is not for people who want it. AA is
for people who do it." 
"If you don't drink--you are having a good day, even if you are too dumb
to know it." 
"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child
as it is to the caterpillar." 
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness."
(Seneca) 
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing
himself. (Leo Tolstoy) 
"The Road to recovery is ALWAYS under Construction." (Geoff P.) 
"Alone I am nothing, but together God and I make a majority!" (St.
Theresa) 
"The impossible is often the untried." (Jim Goodwin) 
"A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock
and key." (Paul Valery) 
"If you are having trouble keeping your head above water, you probably
aren't on your toes." (Liguorian) 
"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is
a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a
vegetarian." 
(Dennis Wholey) 
"One hundred percent of the shots you don't take don't go in." (Wayne
Gretzky) 
"Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress." 
(Thomas A. Edison) 
"Statistics are used as a drunk uses lampposts--for support, not
illumination." 
"Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be." 
(Abraham Lincoln) 
"Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else." 
"I only have one character defect left ... and it's just that I think
about myself damn near all the time." 
"If you think you are an AA watchdog, just remember that watchdogs have to
bark and bite." 
"There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers." 
"My life is none of my business. I just suit up and show up and do what is
in front of me to do and let God take care of the results." 
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find
the ways in which you yourself have altered." 
(Nelson Mandela - A Long Walk to Freedom) 
"Conscience is the inner voice warning us that someone may be looking." 
(H.L. Mencken) 
"God respects us when we work and loves us when we sing." 
"Inch by inch it's a cinch; yard by yard it's hard." (Alesia) 
"While I'm waiting for my ship to come in I'll probably be at the airport"
(Alesia) 
"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift from God -
That's why it's called the present." (Alesia) 
"If you're coasting, you're going downhill." (Alesia) 
"Pray as if it's all up to God, work as if it's all up to you." (Alesia) 
"AA may not open the gates of heaven and let me in, but it sure opened the
gates of hell and let me out." (Alesia) 
"Religion is man-made, god isn't." (Alesia) 
"The same person will drink." (Alesia) 
"Not drinking is a symptom of my recovery." 
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true
success is to labour. (Robert L. Stevenson) 
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and
leave a trail." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) 
"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it
true. You may have to work for it, however." (Richard Bach) 
"The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone."
(Stella, Lady Reading) 
"The only meeting you're ever late for is your first AA meeting." 
"I'm not much, but I'm all I think about." 
"Those who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to
gather flowers." 
"There never was night that had no morn." (Dinah Mulock Craik) 
“Meeting makers make it.” 
“They told me that giving was living, and living was loving, and loving
was God.” 
“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less
than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” (John F.
Kennedy) 
"You can go nowhere from where you are not." 
"Life acquires meaning when we face the conflict between our desires and
reality."  (Deng Ming-Dao) 
“Courage is fear that has said a prayer.” 
"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." (Thoreau) 
“If you don't care where you are, then you ain't lost.” 
“Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.” (Japanese proverb) 
“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to
grow sharper.” (Eden Phillpotts) 
“Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.”
(William Saroyan) 
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” 
“To oppose something is to maintain it.” (Ursula K. LeGuin) 
“Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own
despised and unwanted feelings.” (Alice Miller) 
“This is the final test of the gentleman: his respect for those who can be
of no possible service to him.” (William Lyon Phelps) 
“The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing you will
make one.”  (Elbert Hubbard) 
“Happiness depends, as Nature shows, less on exterior things than most
suppose.” (William Cowper) 
“Failure is only postponed success as long as courage "coaches" ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.” (Herbert Kaufman) 
“He who is outside the door has already a good part of his journey behind
him.” (Dutch Proverb) 
“Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all
factors are favorable do nothing.” (William Feather) 
“We win half the battle when we make up our minds to take the world as we
find it, including the thorns.” (Orison S. Marden) 
"Life acquires meaning when we face the conflict between our desires and
reality." (Deng Ming-Dao) 
“You can't carry a board 360 feet long, but you can carry a one foot board
a day at a time.” 
“Life isn't fair, life isn't just, life is just what it is.” 
“If you're not in the market for a bicycle don't hang around in a bicycle
shop.” 
“Why me? Why not me?” 
“There are no single truths, there are only simple truths.” 
“Quality Sobriety...I used to let others tell me about mine. Today I know
it for myself.” 
“Sober is being comfortable with myself out of control. When I am in
control, I am not sober.” 
“God won't give me more today than I can handle, but He didn't count on me
piling on yesterday and tomorrow.” 
“I thought that I was The Captain of my Fate, and the Master of my Soul.
What I found out was that when I was drinking I was a menace to
Navigation.” 
“The insanity of this disease is that I kept getting drunk. Then I'd be
drunk and insane.” 
“Since it is One Day At A Time, then whoever awoke the earliest today has
the most sobriety.” 
“I thought Easy Does It was counting to ten before hitting someone.” 
“I was a Periodic Drinker. I drank, period.” 
“Misery is optional.” 
“Getting sober by any means possible must include love.” 
“There are things more painful than the truth, but I can't think of any.” 
“I finally got into recovery when the unknown became more acceptable than
the known.” 
“When I look into a mirror, I take a good look, because this is the guy
that got me here.” 
“AA won't solve my problems, It will help keep me sober to work on them.” 
“If I drink, there are three doors to choose from; bad, worse and
terrible.” 
“The man I was will always drink. I need to change.” 
“People didn't recruit me for this program, alcohol did; and it did a good
job.” 
“I had alcoholic amnesia. I forgot everything but my enemies.” 
“When I am being here now, I don't have to cover up anything.” 
“If you don't like the Program, we will refund your misery.” 
“When the Program doesn't work, am I still negotiating the terms of my
surrender.” 
“If your life worked so well, what are you doing here now?” 
“My drug of choice was actually a drug of No Choice.” 
“Life is too short to be small.” 
“Whatever you do may be very insignificant, but it is very important that
you do it.” 
“I have the problem of trying to understand my insides by means of
thinking without experience.” 
“Believe only half of what you hear. And after you have been around
awhile, you will know which half.” 
“This is a Positive Program for Negative people.” 
“Most alcoholics are great talkers. But the Program is about ACTION.” 
“Failure isn't in falling down, it's in failing to get back up.” 
“I am not interested in the truth, I leave that to God and my sponsor. I'm
only interested in the momentary facts of things.” 
“My sponsor taught me that I am not the con man. I am the mark.” 
“We need trust to combat fear.” 
“A Captain of a ship needs a crew. Accept the help of others.” 
“The healthy person finds happiness in helping others. Thus, for him
unselfishness is selfish. We don't have something until we have built up
enough to be able to give some away.” 
“Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent.” 
“Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you didn't have a sponsor or worked
the Steps. But I repeat myself.” 
“I must remember that the power within me far exceeds the fear in front of
me.” 
“The trouble with many recovering people is that they are bigger pain the
second time around.” 
“It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis.” 
“Most alcoholics would rather die than learn about themselves. In fact
they do.” 
“A person who doesn't work The Steps has no advantage over the person who
can't work them.” 
“It was natural for me to drink-just like birds swim and fish fly, I
drank.” 
“As an alcoholic it was natural for me to talk out of both sides of my
mouth at the same time-and to lie out of the other side.” 
“I don't yet know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to
please everybody.” 
“Responsibility - I didn't want it. It was thrust upon me by birth.” 
“When nothing in my world seems to measure up, there is something wrong
with the yardstick.” 
“Acceptance is realizing that one of the things I cannot change is the
truth of the Serenity Prayer.” 
“Serenity is not the absence of disturbance, it is being okay with that
disturbance.” 
“We are here to confront ourselves through the eyes and hearts of others.” 
“Do I believe that I can give out one kind of behavior and yet receive
another?” 
“If you can't get what you want, learn to want what you get.” 
“Remember yourself as the whole person you are and accept yourself as you
are.” 
“Rust never sleeps. Will I accept that or will I resent it?” 
“Serenity isn't freedom from the storm; it is peace within the storm.” 
“Some things have to be believed to be seen.” 
“The worst thing about some Grateful Recovering Alcoholics is that they
are no longer drunk and are now sober.” 
“An alcoholic was someone I didn't like because he drank as much as I
did.” 
“Life is not a dress rehearsal.” 
“A little kid will take your hand and enjoy whatever happens. How did I
get from being that little kid to believing that I was the Chairman of the
Universe?” 
“Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.” 
“A loss in life is not a loss of life. It doesn't hurt to try.” 
“Alcoholism is learned inadequate responses to life's problems.” 
“What are you doing suffering someone else's pain?” 
“My whole being is denial and addiction. What would happen if I took all
that energy and aimed at sobriety?” 
“The Program is a tool box; it is up to me to take the tools out and use
them.” 
“If you think life's lessons are hard, try addiction.” 
“Letting go is always taught at meetings. Look at all the idiotic behavior
we encounter.” 
“You either face the issue or you face destruction.” 
A Prayer: “Thank you God for all you have given me, for all you have taken
away from me, and for all you have left me.” 
“With my self-image I had little going for me, plus some less.” 
“You have the right to act in ways that promote your dignity and
self-respect as long as the rights of others are not being violated in the
process.” 
“The two hardest things in life to handle are success and failure.” 
“I wanted to be proud of myself, the problem is that I chose drinking as
the subject of my pride.” 
“Changing your dress or your name you can do easily. But changing who you
are will take a lot of work.” 
“Sometimes recovering people must do twice as much as others to be thought
of as half as good. Luckily this is not difficult.” 
“The Program has helped me to build a record of sobriety; but a record
isn't something you stand on, it is something you grow on.” 
“Live your life in your heart, fill it with love, not hate.” 
“I've learned not to pay attention to the foolish actions of others.” 
“Worry is interest on fear.” 
“When I was drinking, I was lost in the four C's: Compare, Criticize,
Compete and Condemn.” 
“My friends were all victims-it makes me wonder how that could happen by
accident.” 
“The wind does not wait for the tree to bend.” 
“Time is natures way of keeping everything from happening at once.” 
“Most people lie when the truth is too tough. At sometime it will have to
come out.” 
“A cockroach doesn't turn into a butterfly. A complete change of nature is
necessary.” 
“The main value of Iying has yet to be discovered.” 
“God is closer to me than I am to myself.” 
“You need to be honest with God, because this is one heck of a disease and
you'll need Him. Who did I think I was wanting control? It was the very
thing that got me here.” 
“One way to lose your soul is to only worship a God outside of yourself.” 
“If you truly do a Third Step and turn your will over to the care of God,
take a Tenth Step each day to see how He's doing.” 
“Trust is belief that my decisions will work. Faith is belief that the
results will be beneficial.” 
“Real communion with God is communion with your fellow beings.” 
“God won't give me more today than I can handle. His list fits me, my list
is as big as my ego. I'm not a drunk. I'm just naturally obnoxious,
dishonest, and irresponsible.” 
“What kind of world would it be if it depended on my beliefs? But then I
have it backwards.” 
“Love is wishing the other person well, and being willing to help them
achieve it.” 
“In a relationship there is me and her and God; I have my plans for us;
God has his. Guess who will win?” 
“God speaks through people, I used to worry about which ones.” 
“There are two movements in this program; one toward sobriety, and a
second away from it.” 
“Alcohol is a solvent; it will remove everything from your life.” 
“Has helping another person ever been your number one priority? Have you
ever wanted to help someone achieve with everything you had? Choosing to
set yourself aside is genuine care and love.” 
“One may pretend to love, but one cannot pretend genuine care.” 
“No person with whom we are enamored of will be able to give us the full
love we seek. Only mindless morons and pets do that.” 
“Minds are like parachutes they must be open to work.” 
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the
night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (Shakespeare) 
“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless
manner, you have learned how to live.” (Lin Yutang) 
“You must allow people to be right, because it consoles them for not being
anything else.” (Andre' Gide) 
“The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but
what they become by it.” (John Ruskin) 
“First say to yourself what you would be, then do what you have to do.”
(Epictetus) 
“We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.” (Talmudic
Saying) 
“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” (Margaret Drabble) 
“Kindness is within our power, even when fondness is not.” (Samuel
Johnson) 
“The immature mind hops from one thing to another; the mature mind seeks
to follow through.” (Harry A. Overstreet) 
On COMMITMENT: “Strength is a matter of the made-up mind.” (John Beecher) 
On CHANGE: “After you've done a thing the same way for two years, look it
over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten
years, throw it away and start all over.” (Alfred Edward Perlman) 
The ABSOLUTES: “Almost always, if I measure my decision carefully by the
yardsticks of absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness, absolute purity,
and absolute love, and it checks up pretty well with those four, then my
answer can't be very far out of the way.” (Dr. Bob and the Good
Oldtimers:54) 
“When you know that you don't know, then you know!” 
"Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what
you have." (Burt B) 
“It isn't that they can't see the solution. It's that they can't see the
problem.” (G.K. Chesterton) 
“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he
reads.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) 
“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a
life.” (Arthur Ashe) 
“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it
permanent.” (Marilyn vos Savant) 
“Don't count the days, make the days count.” 
“Persistent people begin their success where others end in failures.”
(Edward Eggleston) 
“I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have
things I am not able to appreciate.” (Elbert Hubbard) 

If anybody has any more Kewl Kwotes, let me know!! 

Bill S. 

 


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AACRONYMS 
AA = Absolute Abstinence 

AA = Adventurers Anonymous 

AA = Altered Attitudes 

AA = Altruistic Action 

AA = Attitude Adjustment 

AA's-R-US = Alcoholics Anonymous Recovery Unity Service 

ABC = Acceptance, Belief, Change 

ACTION = Any Change Toward Improving One's Nature 

ACTION = Any Change To Improve Our Natures 

ADDICT = Anybody Doing Drugs In Compulsive Trouble 

AFGE = Another Fucking Growth Experience 

AIDS = Active In Dangerous Sex 

AIDS = Addicts Injecting Dirty Syringes 

ALCOHOLICS = A Life Centered On Helping Others Live In Complete Sobriety 

ANONYMOUS = Actions Not Our Names Yield Maintenance Of Unity & Service 

ANGER = Any No Good Energy Rising 

ASK = Ass-Saving Kit 

BAR = Beware Alcohol, Run 

BAR = Beware Alcoholic Ruin 

BIG BOOK = Believing In God Beats Our Old Knowledge 

BS = Before Sobriety 

BUT = Being Unconvinced Totally 

CALM = Can Anger Leave Me 

CARE = Comforting And Reassuring Each Other 

CHANGE = Choosing Honesty Allows New Growth Everyday 

CIA = Catholic Irish Alcoholic 

CLEAN = Completely Leaving Every Addiction Now! 

COURAGE = 'Cause of Using Recovery's A Great Effort 

CRAP = Carry Resentments Against People 

DEAD = Drinking Ends All Dreams 

DENIAL = Don't Even Notice I Am Lying 

DENIAL = Don't Even Notice It's A Lie 

DETACH = Don't Even Think About Changing Him/Her 

DT'S = Don't Think Shit 

DUES = Desperately Using Everything but Sobriety 

EDI not DIE = Easy Does It not Does It Easy 

EGO = Easing God Out 

EGO = Edging God Out 

FAILURE = Fearful, Arrogant, Insecure, Lonely, Uncertain, Resentful, Empty 

FAITH = Fear Ain't In This House 

FAITH = Facing An Inner Truth Heals 

FAITH = For An Instant Trust Him 

FAITH = Fantastic Adventure In Trusting Him 

FAITH = Fear And Insecurity? Trust Him! 

FAMILY = Father And Mother I Love You 

FEAR = Failure Expected And Received 

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real 

FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real 

FEAR = Feelings Expressed Allows Relief 

FEAR = Feelings Every Alcoholic Rejects 

FEAR = Fighting Ego Against Reality 

FEAR = Forget Everything and Run 

FEAR = F--k Everything and Run! 

FEAR = Face Everything and Recover! 

FEAR = Forgetting Everything's All Right 

FEAR = Frantic Effort to Appear Real 

FEAR = Frantic Efforts to Appear Recovered 

FINE = Faithful, Involved, kNowledgeable and Experienced 

FINE = Feeling Insecure, Numb and Empty 

FINE = Frantic, Insane, Nuts and Egotistical 

FINE = Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional 

FINE = Feeling Insecure Neurotic & Emotional 

FINE = Frustrated, Insecure, Neurotic & Emotional 

FINE = F--cked, Insecure, Neurotic & Emotional 

FOG = Fear Of God 

F_CKED = Feeling Useless 'Cause I'm Kicking Every Drug 

GAYS = Go Ask Your Sponsor 

GIFT = God Is Forever There 

GIFTS = Getting It From The Steps 

GOD = Good Orderly Direction 

GOD = Get Out Devil 

GOD = Go On Dreaming 

GOD = Group Of Drunks 

GOD = Group Of Drug Addicts 

GOYA = Get Off Your Ass 

GUT = God's Undeniable Truths 

HALT = Honestly, Actively, Lovingly Tolerant 

HALT = Hope, Acceptance, Love and Tolerance 

HALT = Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired: Fix these situations before you make
any decisions. 

HALT = Horny, Arrogant, Lazy and Tragic: if you're any one of these, get
to a meeting! 

HALTS = Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired and Stupid 

HALTS FEAR = Hope, Acceptance, Love and Tolerance Stops Forgetting that
Everything's All Right 

HEART = Healing Enjoying And Recovering Together 

HELP = His Ever Loving Presence 

HELP = Her Ever Loving Presence 

HELP = Hope, Encouragement, Love and Patience 

HOPE = Happy Our Program Exists 

HOPE = Hearing Other Peoples' Experience 

HOPE = Hang On! Peace Exists... 

HOW = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness: that's how we do it 

HOW = Honest, Open-minded and Willing 

ISM = I, Self, Me 

ISM = Incredibly Short Memory 

ISM = InSide Me 

ISM = I Sabotage Myself 

ISM = I Sponsor Myself 

KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid 

KISS = Keep It Simple, Sugar 

KISS = Keep It Simple, Sweetheart 

KISS = Keeping It Simple, Spiritually 

LET GO = Leave Everything To God, Okay? 

LOVE = Living Our Victories Everyday 

MMM = Meetings, Meditation and Masturbation (recommended for the first
year) 

NEW = Nothing Else Worked 

NOW = No Other Way 

NOWHERE or NOW HERE 

NUTS = Not Using The Steps 

OUR = Openly Using Recovery 

PACE = Positive Attitudes Change Everything 

PAID = Pitiful And Incomprehensible Demoralization 

PAIN = Pause And Invite New 

PHD = Pretty Heavy Drinker 

PMS = Poor Me Syndrome 

PMS = Pour More Scotch 

PRIDE = Personal Recovery Involves Defeating Ego 

PROGRAM = People Relying on God Relaying a Message 

RAGE = Real Angry Gut-level Ego 

RELAPSE = Recovery Exits Life And Program Seem Empty 

RELATIONSHIP = Really Exciting Love Affair Turns Into Outrageous Nightmare
Sobriety Hangs In Peril 

RID = Restless, Irritable and Discontented 

RUN + I = RUIN 

RUIN - I = RUN (let God run the show 'cause I ruin everything) 

SASTO = Some Are Sicker Than Others 

SHIT = Simply How I'm Thinking 

SLIP = Sobriety Loses Its Priority 

SOB = Sober Old Bag 

SOB = Sober Old Bastard 

SOB = Sober Old Biker 

SOB = Sober Old Bitch 

SOBER = Staying Off Booze Enjoying Recovery 

SOBER = Son Of A Bitch, Everything's Real 

SOBRIETY = Stay Off Booze Recovery Is Everything To You 

SOLUTIONS = Saving Our Lives Using The Inventory Of Needed Steps 

SPONSOR = Sober Person Offering Newcomers Suggestions On Recovery 

STAR = Start Talking About Recovery 

STEPS = Solutions To Every Problem in Sobriety 

STEPS = Solutions To Every Problem, Sober 

STOP = Sicker Than Other People 

STOP = Sicker Than Others Patrol 

TIME = Things I Must Earn 

TIME = This I Must Earn 

TRUST = Try Relying Upon The Steps 

WASP = Worry Anger Self Pity 

WILLING = When I Live Live, I Need God 

WISDOM = When Into Self, Discover Our Motives 

WILLING = When I (Let Go & Let God) (Live & Let Live) I Normally Grow 

WORK = What Our Recovery Knows 

WORRY = Wrong Or Right Remain Yourself 

YET = You're Eligible Too 

YET = You'll End Up There 


This group of volunteers has agreed to share their
experience, strength and hope with you.
Their opinions are their own, based on their own
experiences within the fellowship of AA.
They are not necessarily the opinions of
Alcoholics Anonymous. 


© Powerless@aol.com John S. (Webmaster)