"Sobriety is the leading cause of relapse."

"A treatment center is where you go and pay $15,000 to find out that A.A. meetings are free."

"If drinking is interfering with your work, you're probably a heavy drinker. If work is interfering with your drinking, you're probably an alcoholic."

"I often obsessively pursue feeling good ... no matter how bad it makes me feel."

"When I was new, I didn't think I had any obsessions, until I started thinking about it. Then it was all I could think about."

"I asked my sponsor how to let go of something. He said "Don't think about it." I left happy, finally knowing how to let go. Went home, told myself I would never think about it again ... Thought about it more than ever before in my life."

"How come if alcohol kills millions of brain cells, it never killed the ones that made me want to drink?"

"It's not old behavior if I'm still doing it."

"If God were small enough to understand, He wouldn't be big enough to be God!"

"If you want to quit drinking, you are going to have to quit drinking."

Newcomer: "How do I know how many meetings I should attend each week?"
Old-timer: "Gradually cut back until you drink. Then you'll know."

"If you're looking to have an image in AA, look around at the meetings you go to and take a look at who you're trying to impress."

"I would rather go through life sober, believing I am an alcoholic, than go through life drunk, trying to convince myself that I am not."

"The secret to the AA program is the first three words on page 112 of the Big Book."

"An alcoholic is a person who wants to be held while he's isolating."

"Resentments are like stray cats: if you don't feed them, they'll go away."

"A lot of members criticize newcomers for sharing in their first thirty days; what scares me are those bleeding deacons sharing in their last thirty days."

"The difference between a problem drinker and an alcoholic is that when the alcohol is taken away from the problem drinker, the problem goes away. But when the alcohol is taken away from the alcoholic, the problem begins."

Sponsee "When will I get a good job?" Sponsor "When you are ready."
Sponsee "How will I know I am ready?" Sponsor "You'll have a good job."

"If I am not the problem, then there is no solution"

"Before I came into AA, I was dead, but I did not know enough to lay down."

"It is the great obsession of every Al-Anon, that some day he or she will learn to control and enjoy their drinker."

"I drank when I was happy. I drank when I was un-happy. Actually, I am a reason to drink."

"You don't have to be sick to want to get well. But if you don't want to get well, you ARE sick."

"I can't do God's will my way."

"I am a left-brain person. My left brain is never right, and to make matters worse, my right brain has left."

"Being single minded has one drawback: there's no room left for God."

"In order to change the way we feel we need to change the way we act."

"There is only one way to coast, and that is down hill."

"The good news is you get your emotions back; the bad news is you get your emotions back."

"All AA asks is that you completely change your attitude as soon as possible."

"Don't be a pigeon. If you tie a message to a pigeon's foot and send him to Denver, the guy in Denver will get the message... but the pigeon won't."

"Never put people in AA on a pedestal ... there's no room to dance when one is on a pedestal."

"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, THAT I still possess."

"Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future."

"Our business is doing God's business. As long as we do God's business, whatever happens to us is none of our business. That's God's business."

"Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood."