Alcoholics Anonymous

“There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty.”

“I've been benefited from a dictionary definition I found that reads: "Rationalization is giving a socially acceptable reason for socially unacceptable behavior, and socially unacceptable behavior is a form of insanity.”

“How did people have conversations anyway? How did they meet and then begin to talk as if they had known each other for years?”

“Through the years I had quit on everything that ever mattered: college, going for promotions, relationships - at least the relationships that demanded any work.”

“I have found that the process of discovering who I really am begins with knowing who I really don't want to be.”

“...one of the primary differences between alcoholics and nonalcoholics is that nonalcoholics change their behavior to meet their goals and alcoholics change their goals to meet their behaviors.”

“When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away.”

“To this day, I am amazed at how many of my problems - most of which had nothing to do with drinking, I believed - have become manageable or have simply disappeared since I quit drinking.”

“Identifying, they said, was trying to see how I was like the people I was with. Comparing, they told me, was looking for differences, usually seeing how I was better than others.”

“I have come to believe that hard times are not just meaningless suffering and that something good might turn up at any moment. That's a big change for someone who used to come to in the morning feeling sentenced to another day of life. When I wake up today, there are lots of possibilities. I can hardly wait to see what's going to happen next.”

“If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.”

“First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't work.”

“They sound like the philosophy of a man who, having a headache, beats himself on the head with a hammer so that he cannot feel the ache.”

“I simply had to believe in a Spirit of the Universe, who knew neither time nor limitation.”

“Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.”

“We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us. But it is clear that we make our own misery.”

“It will take time to clear away the wreck. Though old buildings will eventually be replaced by finer ones, the new structures will take years to complete.”

“To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action.”

“We should be sensible, tactful, considerate and humble without being servile or scraping. As God's people we stand on our feet; we don't crawl before anyone.”

“Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation.”

“The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.”

“One day at a time.”