186 Twelve & Twelve p-139
        In Tradition Three, A.A. is really saying to every serious drinker, "You are an
A.A. member if you say so". You are can declare yourself in; nobody can keep you out.
No matter how low you have gone, no matter how grave your emotional complications
- even your crimes - we do not want to keep you out. We just want to be sure that you
get the same chance for sobriety that we have had.
       
186 Grapevine August 1946
        We do not wish to deny anyone his chance to recover from alcoholism. We wish to
be just as inclusive as we can, never exclusive.
       
187 Alcoholics Anonymous p-77
        In making amends, it is seldom wise to approach an individual who still smarts
from our injustice to him, & announce that we have gone religious. This might be
called leading with the chin. Why lay ourselves open to being branded fanatics or
religious bores? If we do this, we may kill a future opportunity to carry a beneficial
message.
        But the man who hears our amends is sure to be impressed with our sincere desire
to set right a wrong. He is going to be more interested in a demonstration of good will
than in talk of spiritual discoveries.
       
188 Alcoholics Anonymous p-101
        In our belief, any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes wholly 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. Release from alcohol, & not flight from it, is our answer.
      
188 Alcoholics Anonymous p-14/15
        Faith without works is dead. How appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an
alcoholic fails to perfect & enlarge his spiritual life through work & self sacrifice for
others, he cannot survive the certain trials & low spots ahead. If he drinks, he will
surely die. Then faith will be dead indeed.
       
189 Twelve & Twelve p-97
        We agnostics liked A.A. all right, & were quick to say that it had done miracles.
But we recoiled from meditation & prayer as obstinately as the scientist who refused
to perform a certain experiment lest it prove his pet theory wrong.
        When we finally did experiment, & unexpected results followed, we felt
different; in fact, we knew different; & so we were sold on meditation & prayer.
& that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries. It has been well said that
"Almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough".
       
190 Alcoholics Anonymous p-97
        Though an alcoholic does not respond, there is no reason why you should neglect
his family. You should continue to be friendly to them, explaining A.A.s concept of
alcoholism & its treatment. If they accept this & also apply our principles to their
problems, there is a much better chance that the head of the family will recover. &
even though he continues to drink, the family will find life more bearable.
      
190 Alcoholics Anonymous p-83
        Unless a new member's family readily expresses a desire to live upon spiritual
principles, we think he ought not to urge them. They will change in time. His better
behavior will usually convince them far more than his words.
       
191 letter 1966
        There are few absolutes inherent in the Twelve Steps. Most steps are open to
interpretation, based on the experience & outlook of the individual.
        Consequently, the individual is free to start the steps at whatever point he can, or
will. God, as we understand Him, may be defined as a "Power greater...." or the Higher
Power. For thousands of members, the A.A. group itself has been a "Higher Power" in
the beginning. This acknowledgment is easy to make if a newcomer knows that most of
the members are sober & he is not.
        His admission is the beginning of humility - at least the newcomer is willing to
disclaim that he himself is God. That is all the start he needs. If, following this
achievement, he will relax & practice as many of the steps as he can, he is sure to
grow spiritually.
       
192 Twelve & Twelve p-109
        The wonderful energy the twelfth step releases, by which it carries our message to
the next suffering alcoholic & finally translates the twelve steps into action upon all
our affairs, is the payoff, the magnificent reality of A.A.
       
192 Alcoholics Anonymous p-95
        Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out
the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection. Show him how they worked with you. Offer
him friendship & fellowship.
       
193 Grapevine June 1961
        Our first attempts at inventories are apt to prove very unrealistic. I used to be a
champ at unrealistic self-appraisal. On certain occasions, I wanted to look only at the
part of my life which seemed good. Then I would greatly exaggerate whatever virtues I
supposed I had attained. Next I would congratulate myself on the grand job I was doing
in A.A.
        Naturally this generated a terrible hankering for still more "accomplishments", &
still more approval. I was falling straight back into the pattern of my drinking days.
Here were the same old goals - power, fame, & applause. Besides, I had the best alibi
known - the spiritual alibi. The fact that I really did have a spiritual objective made this
utter nonsense seem perfectly right.
       
194 Alcoholics Anonymous p-30
        The idea that somehow, some day, he will control & enjoy his drinking is the
great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is
astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.

194 A.A. Comes Of Age p-61
        Alcoholism, not cancer, was my illness, but what was the difference? Was not
alcoholism also a consumer of the body & mind? Alcoholism took longer to do its
killing,, but the result was the same. So I decided if there was a great Physician who
could cure the alcoholic sickness, I had better seek Him at once.
       
195 A.A. Today p-7/8
        Why, at this particular point in history, has God chosen to communicate His
healing grace to so many of us? Every aspect of this global unfoldment can be related to
a single crucial word. The word is "communication". There has been a life saving
communication among ourselves, with the world around us, & with God.
        From the beginning, communication in A.A. has been no ordinary transmission of
helpful ideas & attitudes. Because of our kinship in suffering, & because our
common means of deliverance are effective for ourselves only when constantly carried
to others, our channels of contact have always been charged with the language of the
heart.
       
196 Twelve & Twelve p-49
        When our failings generate fear, we then have soul sickness. This sickness, in turn,
generates still more character defects.
        Unreasonable fear that our instincts will not be satisfied drives us to covet the
possessions of others, to lust for sex & power, to become angry when our instinctive
demands are threatened, to be envious when the ambitions of others seem to be realized
while ours are not. We eat, drink, & grab for more of everything than we need, fearing
we shall never have enough. And, with genuine alarm at the prospect of work, we stay
lazy. We loaf & procrastinate, or at best work grudgingly & under half steam.
        These fears are the termites that ceaselessly devour the foundations of whatever
sort of life we try to build.
       
196 Grapevine January 1962
        As faith grows, so does inner security. The vast underlying fear of nothingness
commences to subside. We of A.A. find that our basic antidote for fear is a spiritual
awakening.

197 letter 1959
        You know what our genius for rationalization is. If, to ourselves, we fully justify
one slip, then our rationalizing propensities are almost sure to justify another one,
perhaps with a different set of excuses. But one justification leads to another &
presently we are back on the bottle full time.
       
197 Grapevine November 1945
        Experience shows, all too often, that even the "controlled" pill taker may get out of
control. The same crazy rationalizations that once characterized his drinking begin to
blight his existence. He thinks that if pills can cure insomnia so may the cure his worry.
        Our friends the doctors are seldom directly to blame for the dire results we so
often experience. It is much too easy for alcoholics to buy these dangerous drugs, &
once possessed of them the drinker is often likely to use them without any judgment
whatever.
       
198 letter 1958
        A.A.s of worldly prominence sometimes say "if I tell the public that I am in
Alcoholics Anonymous, then that will bring in many others". Thus they express the
belief that our anonymity tradition is wrong - at least for them.
        They forget that, during drinking days, prestige & the achievement of worldly
ambition were their principal aims. They do not realize that, by breaking anonymity,
they are unconsciously pursuing those old & perilous illusions once more. They forget
that the keeping of one's anonymity often means a sacrifice of one's desire for power,
prestige & money. They do not see that if these strivings became general in A.A., the
course of our whole history would be changed; that we would be sowing seeds of our
own destruction as a society.
        Yet I can happily report that while many of us are tempted - & I have been one -
few of us in America actually break our anonymity at the public media level.
       
199 Grapevine April 1961
        A very tough-minded prospect was taken to his first A.A. meeting, where two
speakers (or maybe lecturers) themed their talks on "GOD AS I UNDERSTAND
HIM". Their attitude oozed arrogance. In fact, the final speaker got far overboard on his
personal theological convictions.
        Both were repeating my performance of years before. Implicit in everything they
said was the same idea; "Folks, listen to us. We have the only true brand of A.A. - &
you had better get it!"
        The new prospect said he had had it - & he had. His sponsor protested that this
was not real A.A.. But it was too late; nobody could touch him after that.
       
199 Grapevine June 1961
        I see "humility for today" as a safe & secure stance midway between violent
emotional extremes. It is a quiet place where I can keep enough perspective & enough
balance to take my next small step up the clearly marked road that points toward eternal
values.
       
200 Twelve & Twelve p-38/39
        When world war 2 broke out, our A.A. dependence on a Higher Power had its first
major test. A.A.s entered the services & were scattered all over the world.
        Would they be able to take discipline, stand up under fire, & endure the
monotony & misery of war? Would the kind of dependence they had learned in A.A.
carry them through?
        Well, it did. They had even fewer alcoholic lapses or emotional binges than A.A.s
safe at home did. They were just as capable of endurance & valor as any other
soldiers. Whether in Alaska or on the Salerno beachhead, their dependence upon a
Higher Power worked.
        Far from being a weakness, this dependence was their chief source of strength.
      
201 Grapevine April 1061
        Any number of alcoholics are bedeviled by the dire conviction that if ever they go
near A.A. they will be pressured to conform to some particular brand of faith or
theology.
        They just do not realize that faith is never an imperative for A.A. membership; that
sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable minimum of it, & that our concepts
of a Higher Power & God - as we understand Him - afford everyone a nearly
unlimited choice of spiritual belief & action.
       
201 Alcoholics Anonymous p-93
        In talking to a prospect, stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or
atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God.
He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him.
        The main thing is that he be willing to believe in Power greater than himself &
that he live by spiritual principles.
       
202 Letter 1966
        Not all large decisions can be well made by simply listing the pros & cons of a
given situation, helpful & necessary as this process is. We cannot always depend on
what seems to us to be logical. When there is doubt about our logic, we wait upon God
& listen for the voice of intuition. If in meditation, that voice is persistent enough, we
may well gain sufficient confidence to act upon that, rather than upon logic.
        If after an exercise of these two disciplines, we are still uncertain, then we should
ask for further guidance & when possible, defer important decisions for a time. By
then, with more knowledge of our situation, logic & intuition may well agree upon a
right course.
        But if the decision must be now, let us not evade it through fear. Right or wrong,
we can always profit from the experience.
       
203 Grapevine January 1962
        Gradually we began to be able to accept the other fellow's sins as well as his
virtues. We coined the potent & meaningful expression "let us always love the best in
others - & never fear their worst"
       
203 Twelve & Twelve p-92
        Finally, we begin to see that all people, including ourselves, are to some extent
emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong. When this happens, we approach true
tolerance & we see what real love for our fellows actually means.
       
204 Twelve & Twelve p-65
        Since most of us are born with an abundance of natural desires, it is not strange
that we often let these far exceed their intended purpose. When they drive us blindly, or
we willfully demand that they supply us with more satisfactions or pleasures than are
possible or due us, that is the point at which we depart from the degree of perfection
that God wishes for us here on earth. That is the measure of our character defects, or, if
you wish, of our sins.
        If we ask, God will certainly forgive our derelictions. But in no case does He
render us white as snow & keep us that way without our cooperation. That is
something we are supposed to be willing to work toward ourselves. He asks only that
we try as best we know how to make progress in the building of character.
       
205 Grapevine August 1961
        I used to take comfort from an exaggerated belief in my own honesty. My New
England kinfolk had taught me the sanctity of all business commitments & contracts,
saying, " A man's word is his bond." After this rigorous conditioning, business honesty
always came easy; I never flimflammed anyone.
        However, this small fragment of readily won virtue did produce some interesting
liabilities. I never failed to whip up a fine contempt for those of my fellow Wall
Streeters who were prone to shortchange their customers. This was arrogant enough,
but the ensuing self-deception proved even worse.
        My prized business honesty was presently converted into a comfortable cloak
under which I could hide the many serious flaws that beset other departments of my
life. Being certain of this one virtue, it was easy to conclude that I had them all. For
years on end, this prevented me from taking a good look at myself.
       
206 Twelve & Twelve p-104
        While praying sincerely, we still may fall into temptation. We form ideas as to
what we think God's will is for other people. We say to ourselves, "This one ought to be
cure of his fatal malady" or "That one ought to be relieved of his emotional pain", &
we pray for these specific things.
        Such prayers, of course, are fundamentally good acts, but often they are based
upon a supposition that we know God's will for the person for whom we pray. This
means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain amount of
presumption & conceit in us.
        It is A.A.'s experience that particularly in these cases we ought to pray that God's
will, whatever it is, be done for others as well as for ourselves.
               
207 letter 1940
        It seems proved that A.A. can stand on its own feet anywhere & under any
conditions. It has outgrown any dependence it might once have had upon the
personalities & efforts of a few of the older members like me. New, able, &
vigorous people keep coming to the surface, turning up where they are needed. Besides,
A.A. has reached enough spiritual maturity to know that its final dependence is upon
God.
       
207 A.A. Today p-106
        Clearly, our first duty to A.A.s future is to maintain in full strength what we now
have. Only the most vigilant caretaking can assure this. Never should we be lulled into
complacent self satisfaction by the wide acclaim & success that are everywhere ours.
This is the subtle temptation which could render us stagnant today, perchance
disintegrate us tomorrow. We have always rallied to meet & transcend failure &
crisis. Problems have been our stimulants. How well, though, shall we be able to meet
the problems of success?
       
208 Alcoholics Anonymous p-53/54
       We were squarely confronted with the question of faith. We couldn't duck the
issue. Some of us had already walked along the bridge of reason toward the desired
shore of faith, where friendly hands stretched out in welcome. We were grateful that
reason had brought us so far. But, somehow, we couldn't quite step ashore. Perhaps we
had been relying too heavily on reason that last mile, & we did not like to lose our
support.
        Yet, without knowing it, had we not been brought to where we stood by a certain
kind of faith? For did we not believe in our own reasoning? Did we not have confidence
in our ability to think? What was that but a sort of faith? Yes, we had been faithful,
abjectly faithful to the god of reason. So, in one way or another, we discovered that
faith had been involved all the time.
       
209 Twelve & Twelve p-23/24
        It was discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the
true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again. Following every
spree, he would say to himself, "Maybe those A.A.s were right!" After a few such
experiences, often before the onset of extreme difficulties, he would return to us
convinced.
       
209 A.A. Comes Of Age p-199
        In the first years, those of us who sobered up in A.A. had been grim & utterly
hopeless cases. But then we began to have success with milder alcoholics & even
some potential alcoholics. Younger folks appeared. Lots of people turned up who still
had jobs, homes, health, & even good social standing.
        Of course, it was necessary for these newcomers to hit bottom emotionally. But
they did not have to hit every possible bottom in order to admit they were licked.
      
210 Alcoholics Anonymous p-63
        At step three, many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: "God, I offer
myself to thee - to build with me & to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the
bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that my
transcendence over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy power, Thy
love, & Thy way of life. May I do Thy will always!"
        We thought well before taking this step, making sure we were ready. Then we
could commence to abandon ourselves utterly to Him.
       
211 Twelve & Twelve p-75
        We saw we need not always be bludgeoned & beaten into humility. It could
come quite as much from our voluntary reaching for it as it could from unremitting
suffering.
       
211 letter 1966
        We first reach for a little humility, knowing that we shall perish from alcoholism if
we do not. After a time, though we may still rebel somewhat, we commence to practice
humility because this is the right thing to do. Then comes the day when, finally freed in
large degree from rebellion, we practice humility because we deeply want it as a way of
life.
       
212 Alcoholics Anonymous p-93
        Your prospect's religious education & training may be far superior to yours. In
that case, he is going to wonder how you can add anything to what he already knows.
        But he will be curious to learn why his convictions have not worked & why
yours seem to work so well. He may be an example of the truth that faith alone is
insufficient. To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self-sacrifice & unselfish,
constructive action.
        Admit that he probably knows more about religion than you do, but remind him
that, however deep his faith & knowledge, these qualities could not have served him
very well, or he would not be asking your help.
       
212 A.A. Today p-10
        Dr. Bob did not need me for his spiritual instruction. He had already had more of
that than I. What he did need, when we first met, was the deflation at depth & the
understanding that only one drunk can give another. What I needed was a humility of
self forgetfulness & the kinship with another human being of my own kind.

213 Alcoholics Anonymous p-72/73
        Time after time, newcomers have tried to keep to themselves shoddy facts about
their lives. Trying to avoid the humbling experience of the fifth step, they have turned
to easier methods. Almost invariably they got drunk. Having persevered with the rest of
the program, they wondered why they fell.
        We think the reason is that they never completed their house cleaning. They took
inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock. They only thought
they had humbled themselves. But they had not learned enough of humility,
fearlessness, & honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else
their entire life story.
       
214 A.A. Comes Of Age p-53
        In my teens, I had to be an athlete because I was not an athlete. I had to be
musician because I could not carry a tune. I had to be the president of my class in
boarding school. I had to be first in everything because in my perverse heart I felt
myself the least of God's creatures. I could not accept my deep sense of inferiority, &
so I strove to become captain of the baseball team & I did learn to play the fiddle.
Lead I must - or else. This was the "all or Nothing kind of demand that later did me in"
       
214 letter 1958
        I am glad you are going to try that new job. But make sure that you are only going
to "try". If you approach the project in the attitude that "I must succeed, I must not fail,
I cannot fail", then you practically guarantee the flop which in turn will guarantee a
drinking relapse. But if you look at the venture as a constructive experiment only, then
all should go well.
 

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