Alcoholics Anonymous Quotes

Can you see that meetings and centers that don't address the real causes of dependency are almost certain to be little or no help? They actually can be very damaging. ~ Chris Prentiss

The life of the Addict is always the same. There is no excitement, no glamour, no fun. There are no good times, there is no joy, there is no happiness. There is no future and no escape. There is only an obsession. An all-encompassing, fully enveloping, completely overwhelming obsession. To make light of it, brag about it, or revel in the mock glory of it is not in any way, shape or form related to its truth, and that is all that matters, the truth. ~ James Frey

When I finally embraced abstinence it was because of the simple urge to work a longer day. Thus, without joining Alcoholics Anonymous, I was at last able to leave Piss-Artists Notorious. ~ Clive James

Drunkards have a problem, not with sobriety, but with reality. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

In the one-treatment-fits-all approach, clients sit in group meetings all day and all evening and listen to each other stories. At the end of the first week, everyone in the room knows everyone's story. That goes on for three more weeks, and then most people go home with the same problems they brought with them when they arrived. ~ Chris Prentiss

It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

As one of my early A.A. sponsors used to say, I didn't hang out with lower companions - I had become one. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Dan Lynch was chuckling, his hand around his small glass. 'I remember Billy saying that AA was a Protestant thing when you came right down to it. Started by a bunch of Protestants. He said he didn't like the chummy way some of them were always calling Our Lord by his first name. I drove him to the first meeting and waited to take him home, 'cause Maeve didn't want him driving, and when he came out he said you could tell who the Catholics were because they'd all been bowing their heads every ten seconds while the Protestants bantered on about Jesus, Jesus Jesus.'
(And sure enough, up and down our stretch of table, heads bobbed at the name.) ~ Alice McDermott

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

The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Government doesn't work. You work, I work, Federal Express works, Microsoft works, the Salvation Army works, Alcoholics Anonymous works, but government doesn't. ~ Harry Browne

I was court-ordered to Alcoholics Anonymous on television. Pretty much blows the hell out of the second A, wouldn't you say? ~ Paula Poundstone

Lord, give me the courage to change the things which can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference - Alcoholics Anonymous ~ Stephen Covey

The program works, if you work it. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

No one waits to trap him in a lie. He is told what lies he is getting ready to tell. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

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

People help themselves by trying to help others, and this is the process that helps alcoholics get sober and stay that way. Love and tolerance of others, as stated on page 84 of the text of Alcoholics Anonymous, is the "code" of living that is suggested to AA members. ~ Mel B.

A New Year: 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes - a ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

One day at a time. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

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! We found, too, that we had been worshippers. What a state of mental goose flesh that used to bring on! Had we not variously worshipped people, sentiment, things, money, and ourselves? And then, with a better motive, had we not worshipfully beheld the sunset, the sea, or a flower? Who of us had not loved something ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

...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. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

We sometimes hurt those we love because they need to be "taught a lesson," when we really want to punish. We were depressed and complained we felt bad, when in fact we were mainly asking for sympathy and attention. This odd trait of mind and emotion, this perverse wish to hide a bad motive underneath a good one, permeates human affairs from top to bottom. This subtle and elusive kind of self-righteousness can underlie the smallest act or thought. Learning daily to spot, admit, and correct these flaws is the essence of character-building and good living. An honest regret for harms done, a genuine gratitude for blessings received, and a willingness to try for better things tomorrow will be the permanent assets we shall seek. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

The first thing apparent was that this world and its people were often quite wrong. To conclude that others were wrong was as far as most of us ever got. The usual outcome was that people continued to wrong us and we stayed sore. Sometimes it was remorse and then we were sore at ourselves. But the more we fought and tried to have our own way, the worse matters got. As in war, the victor only seemed to win. Our moments of triumph were short-lived. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

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. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

I hardly ever went to the AA [alcoholics anonymous] meetings. I've just never felt comfortable in those places. It's my worst zone. I'll get up and sing my heart out in front of two hundred thousand people at a rock festival, but when I've got to talk about the way I feel to people I've never met before, I can't do it. There's nothing to hide behind. ~ Ozzy Osbourne

The process of miraculous change is twofold. One: I see my error or dysfunctional pattern. Two: I ask God to take it from me. The first principle without the second is impotent. As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, your best thinking got you here. You're the problem but you're not the answer. The second principle isn't enough to change us either. The Holy Spirit can't take from us what we will not release to him. He won't work without our consent. He cannot remove our character defects without our willingness, because that would be violating our free will. We chose those patterns, however mistakenly, and he will not force us to give them up. In asking God to heal us, we're committing to the choice to be healed. ~ Marianne Williamson

The story is even Bill Wilson, a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, couldn't overcome the sex monkey on his back, and spent his sober life cheating on his wife and filled with guilt. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

Every so often, the gods stop laughing long enough to do something terrible. There are few facts that are not brutal. The bitter, insufficient truth is that God recovered, but fun is dead.
Alcohol: the antidote to civilization. Alcoholism is a fatal disease. But then I am not a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, because I don't want to be cured. Alcoholism is suicide with training wheels. I watch myself sinking, an inch at a time, and I spit into the eye of fate, like Doc Holliday, who died too weak to lift a playing card. My traitorous and degenerate attitude is sort of my book review of the world we live in. I resign from the human race. I declare myself null and void; folded, spindled, and mutilated.
. . .This bar is an oasis for the night people, the street people, the invisible tribe, the people who simply do not exist in the orderly world we see in Time - the weekly science fiction magazine published by the Pentagon - an orderly world which is a sanitized Emerald City populated by contented Munchkins who pay taxes to buy tanks, nerve gas, and bombers and not a world which is a bus-station toilet where the air is a chemical cocktail of cancer-causing agents, children are starving, and the daily agenda is kill or be killed.
When the world demands that you be larger than life, and you are finding it hard enough just being life-size, you can come here, in the messy hemorrhaging of reality, let your hair down, take your girdle off, and not be embarrassed by your ~ Gustav Hasford

When we developed still more, we discovered the best possible source of emotional stability to be God Himself. We found that dependence upon His perfect justice, forgiveness, and love was healthy, and that it would work where nothing else would. If we really depended upon God, we couldn't very well play God to our fellows nor would we feel the urge wholly to rely on human protection and care. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

You know, they say that Bill Wilson asked for whiskey as his dying wish. The man was dying, at the end of the line, and he wanted the one vice he'd been fighting all his life. Even the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous wanted whiskey on his deathbed. ~ Kandi Steiner

Not only had I been off guard, ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

The only thing I'm addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent. ~ Charlie Sheen

If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Not my will, but my heart's will. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

somebody? How much did these feelings, these loves, these worships, have to do with pure reason? Little or nothing, we saw at last. Were not these things the tissue out of which our lives were constructed? Did not these feelings, after all, determine the course of our existence? It was impossible to say we had no capacity for faith, or love, or worship. In one form or another we had been living by faith and little else. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

In Alcoholics Anonymous they say you need to have faith in a higher power to help you overcome your addictions. You can't do it alone, they say. I like that approach. Perhaps if we have faith - trust and commitment, that is - in the universe we live in as God, we can work together to find the solutions we so desperately need. We aren't living things inhabiting a dead universe. The universe we live in is, just like us, an expression of life itself. Once we understand this, we will start taking better care of our world and of one another. ~ Brad Warner

During inflation, Goodwill is the gift that keeps on giving. ~ Warren Buffett

The best gift of meditation, from my perspective, is that I've been introduced to the Spirit of the Universe by experiencing it in the very breath that I breathe. I love that God is available to all equally, that he's all about love, and that some of us experience that source of love by simply practicing the AA principles in all our affairs. Linda I. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed. ~ Zig Ziglar

I want what I want when I want it. ~ Eric Cantor

Not being a man of means, I knew that if I did not stay sober enough to earn money, I would run out of liquor. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Meetings are the Hail Marys of alcoholics. You can do or almost do anything, feel anything, commit any number of non-sober atrocities, as long as you follow with an AA chaser.
"After I cut off his penis, I sauteed it in rosemary butter and ate it."
"But did you go to a meeting afterward?"
"Yes"
"I wouldn't worry about it then. ~ Augusten Burroughs

My very best thinking led me to a therapist's office weeping and pleading for help regarding my alcoholism at the age of 19. I thought I could 'manage' my alcohol addiction, and I failed miserably until I asked for help. My older friends in recovery remind me that I looked like 'death' when I started attending support groups. I was not able to give eye contact, and I covered my eyes with a baseball cap. I had lost significant weight and was frightened to talk to strangers. I was beset with what the programme of Alcoholics Anonymous describes as 'the hideous Four Horseman – terror, bewilderment, frustration and despair'. Similarly, my very best thinking led me to have unhappy, co-dependent relationships. I can go on. The problem was I was dependent on my own counsel. I did not have a support system, let alone a group of sober people to brainstorm with. I just followed my own thinking without getting feedback. The first lesson I learned in recovery was that I needed to check in with sober and wiser people than me regarding my thinking. I still need to do this today. I need feedback from my support system. ~ Christopher Dines

Is there a club for bitchiness management, like Alcoholics Anonymous? Because, seriously, I think you should visit it. ~ Alexandra Engellmann

Invalidating a woman's life choices by saying things like, "Oh, but you'll regret it if you don't have kids," or, "I didn't think I wanted kids either until I had one," is like me going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and telling the newly sober that eventually when they grow old, they'll want to take the edge off with a little gin and tonic and that if they could only just be mature enough to control themselves, they could go on a fun wine-tasting tour in the Napa Valley. ~ Jen Kirkman

What has been America's most nurturing contribution to the culture of this planet so far? Many would say jazz. I, who love jazz, will say this instead: Alcoholics Anonymous. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

The joy of being a REAL alcoholic, is that you just want booze, and nothing else. You've lost faith in God, and people (except Mom maybe), and government, and you know deep in your heart that all you really want to do is drink on the beach somewhere, all day long, forever. even after all the stupid steps. All 12 of them, thoroughly, you know you just want a goddamn beer. Maybe they'll put THAT in the next edition big book. ~ Dmitry Dyatlov

I simply had to believe in a Spirit of the Universe, who knew neither time nor limitation. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

My father was on the Alcoholics Anonymous wishlist. My mother was on ... parole. And lithium. ~ Christopher Titus

The biggest truth to face now – what is probably making me unfunny now for the remainder of my life – is that I don't think people give a damn whether the planet goes or not. It seems to me as if everyone is living as members of Alcoholics Anonymous do, day by day. And a few more days will be enough. I know of very few people who are dreaming of a world for their grandchildren. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I look up the telephone number of Alcoholics Anonymous. Then, my hands shaking, I open the bar and drink the leftover whiskey, gin and vermouth-whatever I can lay my shaking hands on. ~ John Cheever

I feel that people who haven't read my books and haven't heard me lecture - who don't in fact know what my work is about - have been very hard on me. There is an expression in Alcoholics Anonymous called "contempt prior to investigation." I feel many people practice contempt prior to investigation. ~ Marianne Williamson

If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

I've heard many recovering alcoholics say they've never found a church quite like Alcoholics Anonymous. They've never found a community of people so honest with one another about their pain, so united in their shared brokenness. ~ Rachel Held Evans

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

I gave alcohol everything I had ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Gately can't even imagine what it would be like to be a sober and drug-free biker. It's like what would be the point. He imagines these people polishing the hell out of their leather and like playing a lot of really precise pool. ~ David Foster Wallace

It must never be forgotten that the purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous is to sober up alcoholics. There is no religious or spiritual requirement for membership. No demands are made on anyone. An experience is offered which members may accept or reject. That is up to them. ~ Bill W.

I had sent her to four consecutive psychiatrists, and not one of them had gotten me sober. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcohol is good at disinfecting things
It can clean a surface or erase memories ~ Richard L. Ratliff

I hate alcoholics and AA (alcoholics anonymous). If you can't drink responsibly, don't drink at all. Don't go to meetings, whine about your character flaws and blame the fact that you are a sociopath on booze. ~ Roseanne Barr

RIGOROUS HONESTY Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.'s message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect - unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24 I am an alcoholic. If I drink I will die. My, what power, energy, and emotion this simple statement generates in me! But it's really all I need to know for today. Am I willing to stay alive today? Am I willing to stay sober today? Am I willing to ask for help and am I willing to be a help to another suffering alcoholic today? Have I discovered the fatal nature of my situation? What must I do, today, to stay sober? ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

This too shall pass" has become my mantra on the LOW days, havin one, but the day is half done and though my two year old does'nt want to give up the tantrum, I can begin my day again any time I should so choose. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

You come in all clammed up, defences in depth, alibi-systems long established, delusions full-blown. In order to have a chance of staying sober, or rather of staying dry and becoming sober, you've got to change. Nobody likes to change. What you really want, when you come into hospital, even for the second or third or ninth time, is to stay just who you are and not drink. That's not possible, of course. Jack-Who-Drinks has got to alter into Jack-Who-Does-Not-Drink-And-Likes-It. ~ John Berryman

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. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Like most people who decide to get sober, I was brought to Alcoholics Anonymous. While AA certainly works for others, its core propositions felt irreconcilable with my own experiences. I couldn't, for example, rectify the assertion that "alcoholism is a disease" with the facts of my own life.
The idea that by simply attending an AA meeting, without any consultation, one is expected to take on a blanket diagnosis of "diseased addict" was to me, at best, patronizing. At worst, irresponsible. Irresponsible because it doesn't encourage people to turn toward and heal the actual underlying causes of their abuse of substances.
I drank for thirteen years for REALLY good reasons. Among them were unprocessed grief, parental abandonment, isolation, violent trauma, anxiety and panic, social oppression, a general lack of safety, deep existential discord, and a tremendous diet and lifestyle imbalance. None of which constitute a disease, and all of which manifest as profound internal, mental, emotional and physical discomfort, which I sought to escape by taking external substances.
It is only through one's own efforts to turn toward life on its own terms and to develop a wiser relationship to what's there through mindfulness and compassion that make freedom from addictive patterns possible. My sobriety has been sustained by facing life, processing grief, healing family relationships, accepting radically the fact of social oppression, working with my abandonment conditioning, ~ Noah Levine

To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

Diet, get more exercise and sleep, stop ~ Anonymous

The data presented above does not exactly prove that a better workplace will help people to perform better. It may only indicate that people who perform better tend to gravitate toward organizations that provide a better workplace ~ Anonymous

Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry. ~ Anonymous

Personal freedom and interpersonal relationships in marriage are positive aspects of growth in marriage. At the same time they can pose a serious danger in family harmony and degradation of some of the fundamental values if carried too far. ~ Anonymous

connect with the world's ~ Anonymous

When physicists make claims about the universe, Stenger writes, they are also engaging in a grand philosophical tradition that dates back thousands of years. Inescapably, physicists are philosophers, too. ~ Anonymous

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I ~ Anonymous

O God, may Thy Spirit speak in me that I may speak to Thee. I ~ Anonymous

Do you know that feeling? When everything you do seems like a struggle. Where you dont wanna leave the house because you know everyone is judging you. Where you cant even ask for directions in fear that they critise you. Where everyone always seems to be picking out your flaws. That feeling where you feel so damn sick for no reason.
Do you know that feeling where you look in the mirror and completly hate what you see. When you grab handfuls and handfuls of fat and just want to cut it all off. That feeling when you see other beautiful girls and just wish you looked like them. When you compare yourself to everyone you meet. When you realise why no one ever showed intrest in you. That feeling where you become so self conscious you dont even turn up at school. That feeling when you feel so disappointed in who you are and everything you have become. That feeling when every bite makes you wanna be sick. When hunger is more satifying that food. The feeling of failure when you eat a meal.
Do you know that feeling when you cant run as far as your class. Fear knowing that everyone thinks of you as the"Unfit FAT BITCH" That feeling when you just wanna let it all out but you dont wanna look weak. The fear you have in class when you dont understand something but your too afraid to ask for help. The feeling of being to ashamed to stand up for yourself.
Do you know the feeling when your deepest fear becomes a reality. Fear that you will NEVER be good enough. When you feel ~ Anonymous.

For investors, the thesis is a Silicon Valley adage: Get millions of people to use the service first, and eventually it will find a way to make money. ~ Anonymous

28And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? ~ Anonymous

Fourth quarter. The Denver Broncos played the San Francisco 49ers at ~ Anonymous

For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. ~ Anonymous

Be gracious to me, O LORD! ~ Anonymous

Meanwhile, the reality is that living longer in our ever-more-unequal society is very much a class thing: life expectancy at age 65 has risen a lot among the affluent, but hardly at all in the bottom half of the wage distribution, that is, among those who need Social Security most. ~ Anonymous

To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries ~ Richard Dawkins

During a test, people look up for inspiration, down in desperation, and left and right for information. ~ Anonymous

12 As holy people whom God has chosen and loved, be sympathetic, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. 13 Put up with each other, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 Above all, be loving. ~ Anonymous

Related: Money doesn't change you; it reveals who you are when you no longer have to be nice. ~ Anonymous

And I don't have a weird thing with Simon Snow," Cath said. "I'm just really active in the fandom." "What the fuck is 'the fandom'?" "You wouldn't understand, ~ Anonymous

Do not defend a music program because it's good for other things. That's like defending kissing because it gives you stronger lip muscles for eating soup neatly. ~ Anonymous

If you think nothing is impossible, try slamming a revolving door. ~ Anonymous

Sisters are different flowers from the same garden. ~ Anonymous

What holds us back in life is the invisible architecture of fear. It keeps us in our comfort zones, which are, in truth, the least safe places in which to live. Indeed, the greatest risk in life is taking no risks. But every time we do that which we fear, we take back the power that fear has stolen from us - for on the other side of our fears lives our strength. ~ Anonymous

In Germany anti-Uber feeling has nurtured a broader criticism of "Plattform-Kapitalismus"; its perceived readiness to reduce all aspects of people's lives, from spare rooms to spare time, to assets to be auctioned off is seen as deeply dehumanising. ~ Anonymous

I've said this before elsewhere: There are plenty of opportunities to make a six-figure salary by attacking projects that would typically not be worth the time of a small engineering team. One person with a broad skill set can tackle it economically. ~ Anonymous

They found grace out in the desert,
these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest,
met God out looking for them!"
God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will.
Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again,
dear virgin Israel.
You'll resume your singing,
grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards
on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit
oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!
The time's coming when watchmen will call out
from the hilltops of Ephraim:
'On your feet! Let's go to Zion,
go to meet our God! ~ Anonymous

#TheJoyOfSiblings ~ Anonymous

I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that l the power of Christ may rest upon me. ~ Anonymous

People still ask questions and hope the answers will be what they think they already know. They need to pray this prayer by an anonymous believer: From the cowardice that shrinks from new truths, From the laziness that is content with half-truths, From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, O God of truth, deliver us! ~ Warren W. Wiersbe

Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied, "If you seek for Eldorado! ~ Anonymous

DREAMS ARE NEVER GONNA come true if you don't put wings on 'em. Not only wings - they need feet, hands, a brain. You've got to work really hard to make a dream come true. That's the difference between a wish and a dream. You can sit around and wish for good things to happen to you, but a dream is something you have to pursue, something you make happen. ~ Anonymous