AA is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress.

I have become a pupil of the AA movement rather than the teacher.

Nothing can be more demoralizing than a clinging and abject dependence upon another human being. This often amounts to the demand for a degree of protection and love that no one could possibly satisfy. So our hoped for protectors finally flee, and once more we are left alone - either to grow up or to disintegrate.

We know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.

Pain is the touchstone of all growth

We lose the fear of making decisions, great and small; as we realize that should our choice prove wrong we can, if we will, learn from the experience.

How dark it is before the dawn! In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch. I was soon to be catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes.