310 Twelve Concepts p-18
        Our entire A.A. program rests upon the principle of mutual trust. We trust God, we
trust A.A., & we trust each other. Therefore, we trust our leaders in World Service.
The "Right of Decision" that we offer them is not only the practical means by which
they may act & lead effectively, but it is also the symbol of our implicit confidence.
       
310 Twelve & Twelve p-27/28
        If you arrive at A.A. with no religious convictions, you can, if you wish, make
A.A. itself or even your A.A. group your "Higher Power". Here is a large group of
people who have solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power
greater than you. Even this minimum of faith will be enough.
        Many members who have crossed the threshold just this way will tell you that,
once across, their faith broadened & deepened. Relieved of the alcohol obsession,
their lives unaccountably transformed, they came to believe in a Higher Power, &
most of them began to talk of God.
       
311 Grapevine 1961
        Though the variations were many, my main theme was always "How godawful I
am!" just as I often exaggerated my modest attainments by pride, so I exaggerated my
defects through guilt. I would race about, confessing all ( & a great deal more ) to
whoever would listen. Believe it or not, I took this widespread exposure of my sins to
be great humility on my part, & considered it a great spiritual asset & consolation!
        But later on I realized at depth that the great harms I had done others were not
truly regretted. These episodes were merely the basis for storytelling & exhibitionism.
With this realization came the beginning of a certain amount of humility.
       
312 letter 1943
        Honesty with ourselves & others gets us sober, but it is tolerance that keeps us
that way.
        Experience shows that few alcoholics will long stay away from a group just
because they do not like the way it is run. Most return & adjust themselves to
whatever conditions they must. Some go to a different group or form a new one.
        In other words, once an alcoholic fully realizes that he cannot get well alone, he
will somehow find a way to get well & stay well in the company of others. It has been
that way from the beginning of A.A. & probably always will be so.
      
313 Alcoholics Anonymous p-12
        When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me, I did
not like the idea. So my friend Ebby made what then seemed a novel suggestion. He
said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"
        That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose
shadow I had lived & shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
       
313 A.A. Comes Of Age p-45
        It may be possible to find explanations of spiritual experiences such as ours, but I
have often tried to explain my own & have succeeded only in giving the story of it. I
know the feeling it gave me & the results it has brought, but I realize I may never
fully understand its deeper why & how.
       
314 Twelve & Twelve p-23
        When our membership was small, we dealt with "low bottom cases" only. Many
less desperate alcoholics tried A.A., but did not succeed because they could not make
the admission of their hopelessness.
        In the following years, this changed. Alcoholics who still had their health, their
families, their jobs, & even two cars in the garage, began to recognize their
alcoholism. As this trend grew, they were joined by young people who were scarcely
more than potential alcoholics. How could people such as these take the first step?
        By going back in our own drinking histories, we showed them that years before we
realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it
was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression.
       
315 Alcoholics Anonymous p-44/45
        If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome
alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes
& philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried. We could wish to be
moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could will these
things with all our might, but the power needed for change was not there. Our human
resources, as marshaled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly.
        Lack of power: That was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could
live - & it had to be a Power greater than ourselves.
       
316 Grapevine March 1946
        Almost every newspaper reporter who covers A.A. complains, at first, of the
difficulty of writing his story without names. But he quickly forgets this difficulty when
he realizes that here is a group of people who care nothing for acclaim.
        Probably this is the first time in his life he has ever reported on an organization
that wants no personalized publicity. Cynic though he may be, this obvious sincerity
quickly transforms him into a friend of A.A..
      
316 Twelve & Twelve p-187
        Moved by the spirit of anonymity, we try to give up our natural desires for
personal distinction as A.A. members, both among fellow alcoholics & before the
general public. As we lay aside these very human aspirations, we believe that each of us
takes part in the weaving of a protective mantle which covers our whole society &
under which we may grow & work in unity.
       
317 Twelve Concepts p-41
        Vision is, I think, the ability to make good estimates, both for the immediate &
for the more distant future. Some might feel this sort of striving to be heresy against
"One day at a time". But that valuable principle really refers to our mental &
emotional lives & means chiefly that we are not foolishly to repine over the past nor
wishfully to daydream about the future.
        As individuals & as a fellowship, we shall surely suffer if we cast the whole job
of planning for tomorrow onto a fatuous idea of providence. God's real providence has
endowed us human beings with a considerable capability for foresight, & He
evidently expects us to use it. Of course, we shall often miscalculate the future in whole
or in part, but that is better than to refuse to think at all.
       
318 Twelve & Twelve p-57/58
        Through the vital fifth step, we began to get the feeling that we could be forgiven,
no matter what we had thought or done.
        Often it was while working on this step with our sponsors or spiritual advisers that
we first felt truly able to forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged
us.
        Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-round forgiveness was desirable,
but it was only when we resolutely tackled step five that we inwardly knew we would
be able to receive forgiveness & give it too.
       
319 A.A. Comes Of Age p-105
        Many people wonder how A.A. can function under a seeming anarchy. Other
societies have to have law & force & sanction & punishment, administered by
authorized people. Happily for us, we found that we need no human authority whatever.
We have two authorities which are far more effective. One is benign, the other malign.
        There is God, our Father, who very simply says, "I am waiting for you to do my
will". The other authority is named John Barleycorn, & he says, "You had better do
God's will or I will kill you".
       
319 A.A. Today p-11
        The A.A. Traditions are neither rules, regulations, nor laws. We obey them
willingly because we ought to & because we want to. Perhaps the secret of their
power lies in the fact that these life giving communications spring out of living
experience & are rooted in love.
       
320 Alcoholics Anonymous p-60/61
        Most people try to live by self-propulsion. Each person is like an actor who wants
to run the whole show & is forever trying to arrange the lights, the scenery, & the
rest of the players in his own way. If his arrangements would only stay put, if only
people would do as he wished, the show would be great.
        What usually happens? The show does not come off very well. Admitting he may
be somewhat at fault, he is sure that other people are more to blame. He becomes angry,
indignant, self-pitying.
        Is he not really a self-seeker even when trying to be useful? Is he not a victim of
the delusion that he can wrest satisfaction & happiness out of this world if he only
manages well?
      
321 Grapevine June 1958
        As the doubter tries the process of prayer, he should begin to add up the results. If
he persists, he will almost surely find more serenity, more tolerance, less fear, & less
anger. He will acquire a quiet courage, the kind that in not tension ridden. He can look
at "failure" & "success" for what these really are. Problems & calamity will begin to
mean his instruction, instead of his destruction. He will feel freer & saner.
        The idea that he may have been hypnotizing himself by autosuggestion will
become laughable. His sense of purpose & of direction will increase. His anxieties
will commence to fade. His physical health will be likely to improve. Wonderful &
unaccountable things will start to happen. Twisted relations in his family & on the
outside will improve surprisingly.
       
322 Twelve & Twelve p-67
        Procrastination is really sloth in five syllables.

322 letter 1952
        My observation is that some people can get by with a certain amount of
postponement, but few can live with outright rebellion.
       
322 letter 1950
        We have succeeded in confronting many a problem drinker with that awful
alternative, "This we A.A.s do, or we die". Once this much is firmly in his mind, more
drinking only turns the coil tighter.
        As many an alcoholic has said, "I came to the place where it was either into A.A.
or out the window. So here I am!"
       
323 letter 1960
        More than most people, I think, alcoholics want to know who they are, what this
life is about, whether they have a divine origin & an appointed destiny, & whether
there is a system of cosmic justice & love.
        It is the experience of many of us in the early stages of drinking to feel that we
have had glimpses of the absolute & a heightened feeling of identification with the
cosmos. While these glimpses & feeling doubtless have a validity, they are deformed
& finally swept away in the cosmical, spiritual & emotional damage wrought by the
alcohol itself.
        In A.A., & in many religious approaches, alcoholics find a great deal more of
what they merely glimpsed & felt while trying to grope their way toward God in
alcohol.
       

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