We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given to us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it.
BILL W.In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.
More Bill W. Quotes
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I have become a pupil of the AA movement rather than the teacher.
BILL W. -
In the wake of my spiritual experience there came a vision of a society of alcoholics.
BILL W. -
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.
BILL W. -
You are asking yourself, as all of us must: ‘Who am I?’ . . . ‘Where am I?’ . . . ‘Whence do I go?’ The process of enlightenment is usually slow. But, in the end, our seeking always brings a finding. These great mysteries are, after all, enshrined in complete simplicity.
BILL W. -
Apparently, the course of relative humility and progress will have to lie somewhere between these extremes. In our slow progress away from rebellion, true perfection is doubtless several millennia away
BILL W. -
We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired.
BILL W. -
Almost without exception alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.
BILL W. -
AA is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress.
BILL W. -
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.
BILL W. -
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.
BILL W. -
How dark it is before the dawn! In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch.
BILL W. -
We know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.
BILL W. -
Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.
BILL W. -
Regardless of what is happening around me I will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility, of choosing what happens within me.
BILL W. -
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.
BILL W. -
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.
BILL W. -
No demands are made on anyone. An experience is offered which members may accept or reject. That is up to them.
BILL W. -
No personal calamity is so crushing that something true and great can’t be made of it
BILL W. -
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves would restore us to sanity.
BILL W. -
More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor
BILL W. -
We know that if we rebel against doing that which is reasonably possible for us, then we will be penalized. And we will be equally penalized if we presume in ourselves a perfection that simply is not there.
BILL W. -
The real question is whether we can learn anything from our experiences upon which we may grow and help others to grow in the likeness and image of God.
BILL W. -
I am the creator of my own reality. When I [review my day], I know that I must stop judging others.
BILL W. -
Nowadays my brain no longer races compulsively in either elation, grandiosity, or depression. I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine.
BILL W. -
Because of our kinship in suffering, our channels of contact have always been charged with the language of the heart.
BILL W. -
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.
BILL W.