AA Slogans
We are not God's gift to AA; AA
is "His " to us.
We are not reformed drunks–but
informed alcoholics.
We're here for a reason–not for
the season.
An AA group will be judged by
the worst behavior of its Members.
When you clean up after your
group, you leave the signature of AA behind you.
Any two or three alcoholics
gathered together in sobriety may call
themselves an AA group.
AA is a check-up from the neck
up.
AA is not a sentence, it is a
reprieve.
A.A. is a self-help program but
you can't do it by yourself.
A.A. stands for
Always Available
Attitude Adjustment
Altered Attitudes
Acknowledge Acceptance
Avoid Anger
AA won't open the gates of
heaven to let you in,
but it will open the gates of
hell to let you out.
I have become a pupil of A.A.
rather than the teacher I thought I was.
Just accept, don't expect
Acceptance is knowing the past
will never get better.
Experience is what you get when
you don't get what you want.
Life is 10% what you make it and
90% how you take it.
They're just doing it, they're
not doing it to you.
Turn it over.
You can't change the wind, but
you can adjust the sails.
Action alleviates anxiety.
Action: Lazy works twice.
Action: Utilize, don't analyze
You have to act right in order
to feel right
Remember Al-Anons: The quicker,
the sicker, the sooner, the better!!!
Al-anon: Known in Ireland as the
Provisional Wing of AA.
Alcoholic A piece of crap the
universe revolves around.
An alcoholic is someone who
wants to be held while isolating.
I may not be much, but I'm all I
think about.
I only drank on days beginning
with "T"-Tuesdays, Thursdays,
Today, Tomorrow…
If it looks like a duck, waddles
like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a…duck.
If you drank enough to get to
AA, you drank enough.
Alcohol provokes the desire but
takes away the performance.
It's not what or how much you
drank, it's what it did to you.
Alcoholics Terminal uniqueness!
They didn't make a glass big
enough for me to have one drink.
An alcoholic alone is slumming.
An alcoholic is not a guy who
thinks he's had one too many. He's usually
the guy who thinks he's had one
too few.
Being a "little bit
alcoholic" is like being a "little bit pregnant."
Every alcoholic's favorite brand:
More!
If you think you are an
alcoholic, chances are, you are.
The destiny of every alcoholic
is to be locked up, covered up or sobered
up.
You can carry the message, but
not the alcoholic.
You're probably an alcoholic if:
You think spilling beer is alcohol
abuse.
We alcoholics either go to Yale
or jail
Alcohol went from being my best
friend to my worst enemy.
An alcoholic can be in the
gutter, yet still look down on people.
Guilt of yesterday, fear of
tomorrow, shame of today.
High bottoms have trap doors.
If the cure works, chances are,
you have the disease.
If you drank long enough to get
to an A.A. meeting, you drank long enough.
Once you are a pickle, you can't
ever be a cucumber again.
But once you are a pickle, you
can be a newcomer.
The three most dangerous words
for an alcoholic-"I've been thinking"
We are not bad people becoming good, but sick people becoming
well.
Your bottom just may be six feet
under.
Your disease progresses even
when you are not drinking.
Active alcoholism is like an
elevator; you can get off at any floor.
Alcoholism doesn't come in
bottles; it comes in people.
Alcoholism is a self-diagnosed
disease.
Some people think alcoholism is
a two-fold disease--more and right now.
God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things
I can,
and the wisdom to know the
difference.
It's not alcoholwasm; it's
alcoholism.
I can go from grateful to
hateful in a second.
If I don't "pause when
agitated", I might use my "paws when agitated
We are only as big as the
smallest thing that makes us angry.
Anger is but a mask for fear.
Justifiable anger is best left
to those able to handle it.
Those who anger you, conquer
you.
H.A.L.T. Don't get too Hungry,
Angry, Lonely or Tired
I don't say things to make you
angry, I say things that make you angry.
The second A in AA is precious;
it is the word in our name that sets us apart
from all other alcoholics.
Who you see here, what you hear
here, let it stay here.
A T T I T U D E 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100%
You can wake up and say
"Good morning, God" or "Good God, it's morning!"
Attitude: You get what you
expect in life.
Attitude in life is everything!
Keep an attitude of gratitude.
BE a human being not a human
doing.
Be better than you were!
Be here now. Don't know-be.
If It's To Be, It's Up To Me!
What will be...will appear.
You are still becoming.
Being humble means being
teachable.
We came, we came to, we came to
believe.
The liar's punishment is not
that they are not believed,
but that they can believe no one
else.
If you want to hide something
from an AA member, put it in the Big Book.
The Big Book:
One of those rare books that
gets smarter every time I read it.
You may be the only copy of the
Big Book some people ever see.
Blame, character defects: You
spot it, you got it.
Blame: Don't point a finger;
point the whole hand (reach out).
When you point a finger at
someone, there are three pointing back at you.
May you be blessed with a slow
recovery.
No one comes to AA on a good
day.
When things get worse faster
than you can lower your standards.
My bottom is where I put my
shovel down.
The longer I'm in the program, the
lower my bottom seems to get.
Program bumper stickers belong
on the dashboard, not the bumper.
Daily meditation for about 20
minutes is recommended for all in recovery; unless, of course, you're very
busy-then you should meditate for an hour.
When someone's pushing your
buttons, hit the "MUTE" on your remote.
Take care of your body. If you
don't, where else are you going to live?
Change: A suggestion is a subtle
command.
Everything after "but" is BS.
If you don't change, you'll be
begging for change.
If you are eating a shit
sandwich, chances are, you ordered it.
If you keep doing the same thing
over and over, you'll keep getting the same thing over and over.
If you stole horses when you
were drinking, and you expect to get sober,
you not only quit drinking, but
you quit stealing horses.
If you want to keep feeling how you're
feeling, then keep doing what you are
doing.
If you want what you never had,
you have to do what you've never done.
Life begins right outside your
comfort zone.
Make no major changes in the
first year.
Put down the weapons, pick up
the tools.
Change is inevitable, Growth is
optional
God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change,
thecourage to change the things
I can,
and the wisdom to know the
difference.
How many alcoholics does it take
to change a light bulb? Change? What do
you mean, change?
If you don't change, nothing
changes.
If you fail to change the person
you were when you came in, that person
will take you out.
Learn to change, change to
learn.
There are only two things an
alcoholic doesn't like
the way things are, and change.
When one door shuts, another
opens.
Give a damn; be a channel.
If Nothing Changes, nothing
changes.
\
Chapter Five is called "How
It Works," not "Why Me?"
Character is how we act when we
think no one is watching.
Fear is the mother of all
character defects.
Today, we have a choice.
Coincidences are God's way of
staying anonymous.
There are no coincidences.
The willingness to be
uncomfortable leads to being comfortable.
We drink to be comfortable with
being uncomfortable.
Just keep coming.
Keep coming back, it works!
Keep coming back, it works…don't
go away; it works even better!
Identify, don't compare.
Are you comparing your insides
to someone else's outsides?
Complacency kills.
If you have to control your
drinking, it must be out of control.
If you have to control your
drinking, what's the point of drinking?
When you see "CRAZY"
coming, hurry up and cross the street!
Walk a mile in another's shoes
before you criticize
the courage to change the things
I can...
Daily meditation for about 20
minutes is recommended for all in recovery; unless, of course, you're very
busy–then you should meditate for an hour.
When you dance with a gorilla,
it's the gorilla who decides when to stop.
One day at a time.
When you don't know what to do,
don't do anything.
Denial ain't just a river in
Egypt.
The difference between us and
God is that God knows the end of the story.
It's a cinch by the inch; it's
hard by the yard.
We can disagree without being
disagreeable, we can argue without being
difficult.
Negativity is my disease asking
me to come out and play.
When you do good, you never know
how much good you do.
When you don't know what to do,
do nothing.
There are two kinds of people in
this world— the doers and the done tos.
Doormat: Don't ever be someone's
slogan because you are poetry.
We came to these rooms not
because we drank a lot, but because we drank
too much.
Trying is what got me drunk;
doing is what keeps me sober.
I drank to stimulate thought and
blacked out;
I drank to make conversation and
tied my tongue;
I drank for warmth and lost my
cool;
I drank to forget and became
haunted;
I drank for freedom and became a
slave;
I drank for power and became powerless;
I drank to erase problems and
saw them multiply;
I drank to cope with life and
invited death...or worse;
I drank because I had the right
and everything turned out wrong.
A drink is only an arm's-length
away.
A free drink is often the most expensive.
Don't drink and go to meetings.
Nothing is so bad that a drink
won't make it worse.
The person takes a drink,
the drink takes a drink,
the drink takes the person.
Pick up the telephone before you
pick up a drink.
Poor me, poor me, pour me
another drink.
Sitting in a bar and asking
yourself not to drink
is like trying to sneak sun-up
past a rooster.
The ultimate defense against the
first drink is a spiritual one.
We don't want to drink like
gentlemen; we want to drink like pigs
and be treated like gentlemen.
Drinking didn't drown my
problems, it irrigated them.
I'd rather have a frontal
lobotomy, than to have to have a
bottle in front of me.
I came for my drinking and
stayed for my thinking.
If drinking were our only problem,
rehabs would turn out winners.
If you have to control your
drinking, it must be out of control.
If you have to control your
drinking, what's the point of drinking?
If you think you have a drinking
problem, chances are, you do.
Waking up in strange places with
strange faces.
Get out of the driver's seat.
Anything you did drunk, you can
do better sober.
If you want to see who the drunk
is,
look for who's shouting for the
manager.
The first drink gets you drunk.
My worst day sober was better
than my best day drunk.
Some say if you can't remember
your last drunk, you may not have had it.
Easy does it.
Easy does it (but do it).
The highest I can go in AA is
sober.
I may not be much, but I'm all I
think about.
It's not that you think too well
of yourself,
but that you thinkonly of
yourself.
The sum total of false ideas
about myself.
We are all important, but not
for the reasons we think.
Ego is our separation from God
and others.
I don't want my ego to be the
first thing people see
when I walk onto a room.
Egoism isn't necessarily
thinking a lot of yourself
just thinking of yourself a lot.
The only thing I can do to help
my loved one is to let him help himself.
Remember to give and receive
ES&H:
Encouragement, Strength, and Hope
My net worth is not myself
worth.
Everything in God's time.
Everything is all right.
Everything is as it should be.
Everything is as it should be
right now.
Everything that is happening is
God's plan for you today.
Expectation is premeditated
resentment.
Faith is hope in things unseen.
Fear doesn't have to mean Forget Everything And Run.
To overcome fear means to Face
Everything And Recover.
Failure isn't fatal; success
isn't permanent.
Faith can't be taught; it can
only be caught.
Faith conquers fear.
If you don't believe, than make
believe.
If I have faith in God, it
doesn't make much difference
if I have faith in myself.
Faith was the first medicine
known to man
Fake it 'til you make it.
My parents know how to push my
buttons. they installed them.
Fear has no power unless I give
it power.
Fear is absence of faith.
Fear is what keeps you from
God's plan for you.--sent in by Emily M.,
Fear knocked on the door. Faith
answered; there was no one there.
Procrastination is fear in five
syllables.
Turn fear into faith.
If you want to feel better right
away,
ask God to help you be of
service.
If you want to keep feeling how
you are feeling,
keep doing what you are doing.
If 2 million plus recovering
alcoholics are wrong, I'm screwed.
If you have one hand in the
fellowship
and one hand in God, you can't
get drunk today.
First things first.
The first drink gets you drunk.
The first-time sober is a gift;
why waste it?
Keep the focus on yourself.
The person who forgets is doomed
to repeat.
Forgiveness of others is a gift
to yourself.
The number one way to relieve
pain is to forgive.
Today is a gift; that's why it's
called the present.
At first we thought the 'God thing'
was a crutch. Turns out to be stilts.
God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things
I can,
and the wisdom to know the
difference.
God has three answers to
everything-yes, no, and if you insist.
God help me! (Step 1, short
form)
God is my employer (and I never
have trouble with money.
God is doing for us what we can
not do for ourselves.
God is upstairs in church on
Sunday morning,
but at night he's downstairs in
the AA meeting.
God won't fail you (people
will).
God's will: You can't do his
will, your way.
You can't sit in a closet and
pray to God to bring you a hot dog.
God's will, not mine, be done.
I can't, God can, why don't I
let Him? (Steps 1-3, short form)
If you want to make God laugh,
tell him YOUR plans for the day.
If you're looking for God,
you'll never see God more at work than at an
AA meeting.
I know God will not give me
anything I can't handle.
I just wish that Hedidn't trust
me so much.
Is it odd, or is it God?
Listen to your heart often, God
lives there
.
There is only one thing you need
to know about God, you are not Him
What is God's will for me today?
When I ask for patience, God
gives me a traffic jam.
When God made time, He made
plenty of it.
It is easier to live your way
into good feeling
than to feel your way into good
living.
There is nothing we can do to
make God love us more than God already does.
There nothing we can do wrong
that will make God love usany less.
Get off the throne and give it
back to God.
The grace of God will never take
me where
the grace of God will notprotect
me.
There but for the grace of God,
go I.
When you lay down, lay on your
back and look up,
for God is there all the time.
Grateful alcoholics don't drink,
and drinking alcoholics aren't
grateful.
Gratitude: To be grate-ful is to
be grace-filled.
If your heart is full of
gratitude, there is no room for resentment.
Keep an attitude of gratitude.
Show up to grow up.
If small things make you angry-how
big are you?
It's not so important why you
are an alcoholic
Just be on the side of the
angels, it doesn't matter what rank you are.
Pain is mandatory, suffering is
optional.
Sometimes the good is the enemy
of the best.
The opposite of joy is not
sorrow, the opposite of joy is cynicism.
When the pain of where I am is
worse than
the discomfort of where I am
going, then I'll move.
HP is not against me because of
my addiction.
HP is for me and against my
addiction
Happiness isn't getting everything
you want.
It's wanting what you've already
got.
Happiness is an inside job.
.
Happiness is appreciating what
you have, not getting what you want.
True happiness is found in
service.
If you are not happy with what
you have,
what makes you think you would
be happy with more?
If you aren't happy today, what
are you waiting for?
Most folks are as happy as they
make up their minds to be
Would you rather be right, or
happy?
If you pray for honesty, the
chances of your lying go 'way up.
When one door closes, another
door opens.
It's being in the hallway that's
hell.
How high you bounce is more
important than how hard you fall.
Worry is an ironic form of hope.
Being humble means being
teachable.
Get humble, or be made humble.
When you feel it's your job to
humble others,
you may in for a ...stumble,
fumble, or crumble.
Humility is like venereal
disease. If you have it, you don't talk about it
Before you become too proud to
be a member of AA,
make sure AA is proud to have you as a member.
Egotism is not thinking well of
yourself; it's thinking only of yourself.
Halos can turn into nooses.
If you are having trouble
getting down on your knees to pray
in the morning, put your shoes
under the middle of the bed the night before.
It doesn't matter so much who is
right, but what is right.
Remember Rule 62 (don't take
yourself so darn seriously)!
The bigger my head, the easier
the target.
You can't save your face and
your ass at the same time.
Humility is humanity.
Humility is not humiliation.
Humility is that virtue which
reduces a man to the proper size Without degrading him, there by increasing him
in statue without inflating him.
Unless oneattains some degree of humility,
one is condemned to drink again.
If it weren't for a small
deficit in my humility, I'd be perfect.
Just when you think you have
humility, you've lost it.
Identify, don't compare.
Don't just take an inventory;
let it take you.
Insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again,
and expecting different results.
Insanity is the seeming
inability to learn from past mistakes.
The trouble with staying home
and isolating is
you get a lot of bad advice.
ISOLATION: It's the darkroom
where I develop my negatives.
A job is something that happens
to you on the way to a meeting.
The journey is the destination.
When I demand justice, I'd
better think of the consequences.
Keep the memory green.
Knowing why is the booby prize
of life.
It isn't what I don't know that
gets me in trouble;
it's what I absolutely do
know—and just isn't so!
Learn to listen, listen to
learn.
Life is fragile; handle with
prayer.
Life on life's terms.
God gave you two ears and only
one mouth for a reason.
Take the cotton out of your ears
and put it in your mouth.
Live and let live.
Live in the moment.
Live in the solution.
An alcoholic is someone who
treats loneliness with isolation.
If you can't take it, leave it.
If you can't leave it, love it.
God only lends us people when we
need them.
Love is less a feeling than a
thousand tiny acts of kindness.
If love has conditions attached,
it's not love, it's barter.
Love is a verb.
Love is an action.
Love isn't love until you give
it away.
It isn't "me" and
"you" anymore; it's "we" and "us."
Bring your body, your mind will
follow.
Meetings: AA is like a raffle;
you must be present to win.
Meetings: Meeting makers make
it.
Meetings take the bastard out of
me. Jack
Meetings: Those who get around,
stay around.
Meetings: You start to skip, you
start to slip.
A meeting a day keeps the detox
away.
A meeting lasts from preamble to
prayer.
A meeting lasts from preamble to
prayer.
After each meeting, clean up the
wreckage of the present.
If you only need one meeting a
week, you may have to go to five of them
in that time to find out which
one it is.
If you think you don't need a
meeting, chances are, you do.
Get smart feet; go to meetings.
Go to enough meetings and you
still may not stop drinking;
Your drinking, however, will be
ruined.
Token takers take it and meeting
makers make it.
Meetings are not enough.
Meetings, meetings, meetings.
People who don't go to meetings
don't find out what happens
to people who don't go to
meetings.
Seven days without a meeting
makes one weak.
We go to the meetings for all
sorts of reasons,
but we don't know what they are,
so we keep going to meetings.
When you are in a meeting, your
disease is outside doing push-ups.
You only have to go to meetings
until you want to go to meetings.
Carry the message, not the mess.
The message is under the
ashtray.
The message is up front.
I am not allowed in my mind
without an adult!
The mind can cure the mind.
Misery is optional.
Negativity is my disease asking me
to come out and play.
Take the cotton out of one ear,
put it in your mouth.
so what you hear won't whistle
through that empty cavity.
Newcomers are like rum
fruitcakes. You can take out the rum,
but you still have a fruitcake.
What comes after ninety days?
Ninety-one!
Ninety meetings in ninety days.
Nonalcoholic beer is for
nonalcoholics.
Now: Live in the moment.
Is it odd, or is it God?
Do not regret growing old; it is
a privilege denied many.
One day at a time.
One drink is too many, and a thousand
isn't enough.
Keep an open mind.
Those of the opposite sex may
pat your rear end,
but often those of the same sex
will save it.
In sobriety, you are given
permission to be ordinary.
Beauty and truth are admired;
pain is obeyed.
A pain shared is a pain cut in
half.
Not facing pain can prolong it.
Pain is inevitable, but
suffering is optional.
If your ass falls off, put it in
a wheelbarrow and take it to a meeting.
It's either suffering or
service.
The only avoidable pain is the
pain we endure
in the process of trying to avoid pain.
Pass it on.
This, too, shall pass.
Patience: Everything in God's
God give me patience--now!
When I ask for patience, God
gives me a traffic jam.
People, places, and things.
Get off the pity pot.
A periodic is an alcoholic.
Period.
Plan, but don't plan the
outcome.
Plan, don't project.
Plan Plans, Not Results.
.
Prior Planning Prevents
Problems!
When you point a finger at
someone,
there are three pointing back
at you.
Everything we have is on loan
from God.
Powerless over people, places
and things; it's a two-way street.
Strength in powerlessness.
Be careful what you pray
for...you just might get it.
If you are having trouble
getting on your knees to pray in the morning,
put your shoes under the middle
of the bed the night before.
If you pray don't worry. If you
worry don't pray.
Pray as if everything depended
on God;
work as if everything depends on
ourselves.
Ask God not for things to enjoy
life,
but rather life that you may
enjoy all things.
If you pray for potatoes, better
plant a garden.
If you're going to pray, why
worry?
Tears are liquid prayers.
A day without prayer is a day
unfulfilled.
Hit him them with a prayer, not
a chair.
Prayer is not a device for
getting my own way,
but rather a means to become
what I should be.
We don't pray to change things;
we pray to change us.
Today is a gift; that's why it's
called the present.
You can't get indigestion from
swallowing your pride.
I was a problem drinker; every
time I drank, I had a problem.
Procrastination is fear in five
syllables.
A.A. has no musts but it has a
lot of "have-to's".
Don't worry, if you don't get
the program right away, it will get you.
I came to the program and became
focused instead of mocused.
The longer I'm in the program,
the lower my bottom seems to get.
The program is for those who
want it.
The program is like a submarine.
It is much better to be in it
than around it.
The program is like a swimming
pool,
and you can't learn to swim
until you get in the water.
The program-it works if you work
it.
Take the program seriously, not
yourself.
Work the program, not the
problem.
P R O G R A M = People Relying
On God Relay A Message.
Progress not perfection.
Like Caesar-we came, we saw, we
conquered (drinkie, drankie, drunkie).
Don't write scripts unless
you're going to publish them.
Don't quit before the miracle
happens.
Quitting is easy; it's staying
stopped that's hard.
Surrender, don't quit.
Another day, another recovery!
Never look back unless you
intend to go that way.
I may not be where I want to be,
but I certainly am not where I was.
God doesn't need much; whatever
you have left is enough.
I'm getting better. I try to
save my best argument
for when someone else is in the room.
In A.A., there is a wrench for
every nut.
In AA, we learn how to disagree
without being disagreeable.
Discover yourself. Everything
else has been done.
It's the second meeting that's
the most important one
The further you are from your
last drink,
the closer you are to the next
one.
The process is perfect; let it
work.
We take the steps, but it's
funny where the steps take us.
You can only be a newcomer one
time.
I may only have one recovery in
me.
May you be blessed with a slow
recovery.
If you're not sober you can't
relapse. If you are sober and go to
meetings, read AA literature,
talk to your sponsor and don't drink or
think, chances are you won't
relapse.
Going to meetings keeps your
elbow down.
Relapsing: See also slip.
For true intimacy to take place,
I must be a whole person forming
a partnership,
not a broken person seeking
another to be whole.
It's not a question of finding
the right person, but becoming the right person.
Relax-God is in charge.
Remember the 3 P's:
Perfectionism (leads to) Procrastination (leads to)
Paralysis.
Some say if you can't remember
your last drunk, you may not have had it.
Resentment is like burning down
your house to get rid of a rat.
When you are living inside
someone's head, you are out of your mind.
Resentment is from the Latin,
meaning to "feel again."
Resentment is letting someone
else live in your head rent-free.
By releasing resentment, we set
ourselves free.
When I tighten the noose of
resentment around someone's neck, I choke
myself.
Respect is reserved for the
respectable.
When you burn the candle at both
ends,
you're likely to end up with
singed fingers.
We don't get partial results
from half-measures.
If you want to bury someone with
revenge, it is best to dig two graves.
To thine own self be true!
Self-esteem: The exploding
doormat.
A.A. is a self-help program but
you can't do it by yourself.
Poor me, poor me, pour me
another drink.
Self-will run riot.
It’s a selfless program NOT!! a
selfish program.
Serenity: Everything is as it
should be.
A short version of the serenity
prayer: Forget it!
God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change, the
courage to change the things
I can, and the wisdom to know
the difference.
Don't take yourself too darn
seriously.
Take the program seriously, not
yourself.
Service: Shut up, show up and
say "yes."
Service: Trust in God, clean
house, and work with others.
Service is gratitude in action.
Be a channel, not a dam.
Give to God and God will give to
you.
I'd rather hear you share about
the same thing a thousand times
in meetings than learn you were
sharing it in a bar.
If you pass, it's your ass.
In order to keep it, you have to
give it away.
Say what you mean, but don't say
it mean.
Talk or die.
The opposite of listening is
waiting to talk.
There is plenty to go around of
what you give away.
We must give away what we cannot
keep
so we might receive what we
cannot lose.
Show up to grow up.
Shut up, show up and say
"yes."
Keep it simple.
Keep it simple, smarty
Slicker, sicker.
Each time you come back, the
tuition goes up.
Getting sober is a process;
relapsing is a process, too.
Slip: "I Only Had One"
If you escaped the lion's den,
why go back for your hat?
If you fail to change the person
you were when you came in,
That person will take you out.
If you go out, your bottom will
get lower.
It's not the caboose that kills
you it's the engine.
No one ever tripped over a
mountain-
but they sure could slip and
fall on a pebble.
No one who has ever had a slip
said they went to too many meetings.
People who don't go to meetings
don't find out what happens to
people who don't go to meetings.
Seven days without a meeting
makes one weak.
The time away from a drink is
not equal to the distance away from it.
There are a million excuses to
drink, but no good reason.
What AA gives back to me could
take me out again.
When you dance with a gorilla,
it's the gorilla who decides when to stop.
first thing you put before your
sobriety is the first thing you'll lose.
You start to skip, you start to
slip.
The slip occurs before you pick
up.
The longer you stay away, the
harder it is to come back.
in long-term sobriety: too many years and not enough days.
Show me an alcoholic whose Big
Book is falling apart, and I'll
show you an alcoholic who isn't.
A sober alcoholic is like a
turtle on a fence post: You know it had help.
Getting sober is a process; relapsing
is a process, too.
If you sober up a drunken horse
thief, you have a sober horse thief.
My worst day sober was better
than my best day drunk.
The longer I'm sober, the
drunker I was.
Don't say, "I can't
drink"; say instead, "I CAN not drink".
From Alcoholics Obvious to
Alcoholics Anonymous.
God didn't save you from
drowning to beat you up on the beach.
I have everything I need to get
everything I want.
If the sun comes up and goes
down, and I don't get drunk in
the middle, it has been a good
day.
Life is a roller coaster—so hang
onto the safety bar (AA).
Maintenance of your spiritual
condition is key.
Take care of the days and the
years will come by themselves.
The more you have, the more you
want.
You can't keep it unless you
give it away.
Early Sobriety is growing up in
public.
In sobriety, you are given
permission to be ordinary.
Sobriety is a constant process
of uncovering,
discovering, and discarding.
Sobriety is a gift.
Sobriety is a gift, the price of
which is eternal vigilance.
Sobriety is God's gift to me;
what I do with it is my gift to God.
The soul would have no rainbow
had the eye no tears.
Some of us get so spiritual, we
are of no earthly value to anyone.
Most people hope to avoid hell;
spiritual people have been there.
God gave us a kit of spiritual
tools; it is up to us to use them
To build a durable shelter.
Are you a human being having a
spiritual experience?
Or a spiritual being having a human experience?
The more you have on the inside,
the less you need on the outside.
How we treat others is a
consequence of the depth
of our own spirituality.
Most AA people spend more time
deciding where to have lunch
than in choosing a sponsor.
People who sponsor themselves
have fools for sponsors.
When the pupil is ready, the
teacher will appear.
Being an alcoholic is like being
trapped in a box, and the
instructions for getting out of
the box are on the outside of the box.
You need someone to read them to
you (and you must listen!)
Our minds are bad neighborhoods;
we shouldn't go into them alone.
1) Start where you are.
2) Walk out in faith.
3) Do the best you can do.
4) Expect God to help.
The steps: Give up. (Steps
1,2,3) Clean up. (4,5,6) Make up. (7,8,9)
Keep up. (10,11,12).
If a candidate for AA is ready,
you can't say anything wrong;
If he's not ready, you can't say
anything right.
If you only quit one day at a
time, every day that you don't
drink will be an accomplishment.
If you quit forever, you won't have
accomplished anything until
you're dead.
The first drink gets you drunk
Skid Row is a place in my
mind--not a place on the street.
We can do what I can't.
You're not alone anymore.
What I came here looking for, I
came here looking with.
I get what I need and inevitably
find out it was what I wanted all the time.
Let God and let go.
If I take a drink, I take my
life back.
If you have a problem believing
in God, go to an AA meeting and
you'll see miracle, after
miracle, after miracle. Seeing is believing.
Let go or be dragged.
Made a decision to turn our will
and our lives over to the care
of God, as we understand Him.
Three frogs were on a tree limb
and decided to jump off. How
many are left?
Answer: All three of them (they
only made a decision to jump off.
Conquer yourself rather than the
world.
A "shortcoming" is
like a flat tire. A "character defect" is like driving on it.
.
If you only pray when you need
something fixed,
you're turning God into a
repairman.
A candle loses nothing by
lighting another candle.
Carry the message, not the mess.
I can only help another to the
degree that I've been helped myself.
Only in giving do we receive in
full measure.
Practice these principles in all
your affairs--or change your affairs.
We are hardest to love when we
need love most.
When anyone, anywhere, reaches
out for help, I want the hand of
AA always to be there: and for
that, I am responsible.
When I'm working with a drunk,
sometimes the drunk I'm working on is me.
Newcomer meets newcomer in AA is
the 13th step.
God help me! (Step 1, short
form)
Step 1 plus Step 12 equals Step
13.
What step are you on?
The elevator is broken; please
use the steps.
The steps keep us from suicide;
the traditions, from homicide.
The answer is in the Steps.
You can take the elevator going
down, but you gotta take the steps up
The steps are there to protect
me from myself;
the Traditions are there to
protect AA from me.
I can't, God can, why don't I let
Him?
Don't wait to get better to do
the steps-do the steps now to get better.
Life is a dance--tra-la-la--when
you learn the steps.
Sometimes you have to stop
looking to find what you need.
Stop looking, you've found it.
Don't push a newcomer to do the
steps too fast.
A heavy downpour runs off,
whereas a gentle rain soaks in.
Stopping drinking is easy, it's
staying stopped that's hard.
Strength in powerlessness.
Strength in surrender.
Stress: God does not hurry.
If you're too busy to pray, you're
too busy.
You can be a human being-you
don't have to be a human doing.
The best way for me to succeed
and grow in my sobriety
is to follow the advice I hear
myself giving to others.
A rich person is one who knows
she has enough.
No person is a failure who has
friends.
Sometimes the worst things in
life happen
after you get what you think you
want.
Success is not about getting
what you want;
success is knowing what you
don't need.
Strength in surrender.
Half measures avail us nothing
In AA, we surrender to win, not
to whine.
Surrender, don't quit.
When you find yourself in a
hole, stop digging.
Trust in God, clean house, and
work with others.
Do you talk the talk, or walk
the talk?
Talking about the spiritual part
of the program is like
talking about the wet part of
the ocean.
Pick up the telephone before you
pick up a drink.
Unless you are a lion tamer, you
have no business in the lion's den.
Lead me not into temptation; I
can find it myself.
Think: Most good ideas are
simple.
Don't believe everything you
think.
Think it through.
Think, think, think before you
take that drink.
I came for my drinking and
stayed for my thinking.
My best thinking got me drunk.
The three most dangerous words
for an alcoholic: "I've been thinking…"
Thinking of drinking?
Give time time.
When God made time, He made
plenty of it.
Today is a very important
day–it's the only day you have.
Just for today.
If you keep one foot in
yesterday and one foot on tomorrow,
you're peeing all over today.
Live for today, tommorrow never
comes
Today is the first day of the
rest of your life.
Today is the tomorrow you
worried about yesterday.
The things I am grateful for
today, I will take for granted tomorrow.
Today, we have a choice.
Worry about tomorrow saps today
of its strength.
Don't try to teach a pig to
sing. First, pigs can't sing
and secondly, it annoys the pig.
Live and let live.
Tomorrow is a promissory note;
yesterday is a canceled check.
Today is all you have.
Tough love: The three C's:
"I didn't cause the drinking, I can't control
it, and I can't cure it."
Tough times: The darkest hour is
just before the dawn.
Tough times: Drop the rock.
God will never give you more
than you can handle.
How I feel is rarely an indication of how I'm doing.
If you drink at the bad news you
got today,
you'll never know you could get
through it without drinking.
Keep coming back no matter what.
My worst day sober was better
than my best day drunk.
Nothing is so bad that a drink
won't make it worse.
On a good day, things are okay
and you don't drink; on a
great day, things are lousy and
you don't
That which doesn't kill you
serves to make you stronger.
We don't drink even if our ass falls
off; we pick it up and take it to a meeting.
When we dwell on the problem,
the problem gets bigger.
When we dwell on the solution, the solution gets bigger.
The things we have in common are more important than our
differences.
Trouble is a part of your life,
and if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you enough
chance to love you enough.
Trust: If you want to be able to
trust others,
try becoming more trustworthy
yourself.
Trust in God, clean house, and
work with others.
The truth will set you free, but
first it will Tick you off.
Trying is what got me drunk;
doing is what keeps me sober.
The Steps are but suggestions,
as is pulling the rip cord on a parachute.
We drink to be comfortable with
being uncomfortable.
The victims of alcoholism are
those around us.
There are no victims, only
volunteers.
Sobriety is a gift, the price of
which is eternal vigilance.
Do you talk the talk, or walk
the talk?
We want what we want when we
want it.
We came to these rooms not because
we drank a lot,
but because we drank too much.
We can best control by letting
go.
We don't get partial results
from half-measures.
We don't trip over mountains.
We don't want to drink like
gentlemen;
we want to drink like pigs and
be treated like gentlemen.
We don't want to drink like
ladies;
we want to drink like pigs and
be treated like ladies.
We drink to be comfortable with
being uncomfortable.
We go to the meetings for all
sorts of reasons, but we don't know what
they are, so we keep going to
meetings.
It isn't "me" and
"you" anymore; it's "we" and "us."
Why me? Why not!
Who's will are you trying to do?
Winners do what they have to do;
losers do what they want to do.
Winners Don't Whine and Whiners
Don't Win.
.
Wisdom is the ability to see the
obvious.
The beginning of wisdom is a
firm grasp of the obvious.
Note from God: I am handling all
your problems this week.
You don't have to worry, and I
don't need any help.
Worry about tomorrow saps today
of its strength.
Worry has produced strong
results for some of us…
almost everything we worried
about has not come to pass.
Worry is an ironic form of hope.
Worry is like a rocking horse,
it keeps you moving
but never gets you anywhere.
The answer to all my worries was
as close as the next prayer.
The worst things I every lived
through never happened
YET: You're eligible too.
If you don't take care of
yourself, why should anyone else?
It's not about you.
Don't take yourself too darn
seriously.
Keep the focus on yourself.
Take the program seriously, not
yourself. .