Explore Quotes by Bill W.

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.

Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men.

Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.

God is either everything, or He is nothing.

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

The good is the enemy of the best.

Pain is the touchstone of all growth

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.

In the wake of my spiritual experience there came a vision of a society of alcoholics.

The temporary good is enemy to the permanent best.

No matter how unreasonable others may seem, I am responsible for not reacting negatively. Regardless of what is happening around me I will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility, of choosing what happens within me. I am the creator of my own reality. When I [review my day], I know that I must stop judging others. If I judge others, I am probably judging myself. Whoever is upsetting me most is my best teacher. I have much to learn from him or her, and in my hearts, I should thank that person.

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

True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition is the profound desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God.

I was not an atheist. Few people really are, for that means blind faith in the strange proposition that this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes nowhere.

Almost without exception alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.

Nothing matters more to AA's future welfare than the manner in which we use the colossus of modern communication. Used unselfishly and well, it can produce results surpassing our present imagination.

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.

No personal calamity is so crushing that something true and great can't be made of it

More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor

Indecision with the passing of time becomes decision.

Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening? No, sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life - the one that did not work - for a new life that can and does work under any conditions whatever.