Learning how to live in the greatest peace, partnership, and brotherhood with all men and women, of whatever description, is a moving and fascinating adventure.
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.
More Bill W. Quotes
-
-
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. -
No matter how unreasonable others may seem, I am responsible for not reacting negatively.
BILL W. -
Almost without exception alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.
BILL W. -
Because of our kinship in suffering, our channels of contact have always been charged with the language of the heart.
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. -
In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.
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. -
No demands are made on anyone. An experience is offered which members may accept or reject. That is up to them.
BILL W. -
Indecision with the passing of time becomes decision.
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. -
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. -
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 know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.
BILL W. -
We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired.
BILL W. -
More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor
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. -
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. -
In the wake of my spiritual experience there came a vision of a society of alcoholics.
BILL W. -
Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.
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. -
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. -
For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.
BILL W. -
Guilt is really the reverse side of the coin of pride. Guilt aims at self-destruction, and pride aims at the destruction of others.
BILL W. -
How dark it is before the dawn! In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch.
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. -
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.