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.
BILL W.No personal calamity is so crushing that something true and great can’t be made of it
More Bill W. Quotes
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In the wake of my spiritual experience there came a vision of a society of alcoholics.
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. -
We know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
The temporary good is enemy to the permanent best.
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. -
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. -
Indecision with the passing of time becomes decision.
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. -
Regardless of what is happening around me I will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility, of choosing what happens within me.
BILL W. -
Honesty with ourselves & others gets us sober, but it is tolerance that keeps us that way.
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.