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.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.
More Bill W. Quotes
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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. -
The temporary good is enemy to the permanent best.
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. -
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. -
We know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.
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. -
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. -
Regardless of what is happening around me I will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility, of choosing what happens within me.
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. -
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. -
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. -
I have become a pupil of the AA movement rather than the teacher.
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. -
When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion we can ever know.
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. -
No personal calamity is so crushing that something true and great can’t be made of it
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. -
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. -
Years ago I used to commiserate with all people who suffered. Now I commiserate only with those who suffer in ignorance, who do not understand the purpose and ultimate utility of pain
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. -
Because of our kinship in suffering, our channels of contact have always been charged with the language of the heart.
BILL W. -
How dark it is before the dawn! In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch.
BILL W. -
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. -
More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor
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. -
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.