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From "Why AA is Anonymous:" c. 1986, Best of the Grapevine, page 274-275
"The Preamble...was first introduced in the June 1947 Grapevine. Written by the then editor to describe AA to the
Grapevine's non-AA readers, it has become a part of AA literature. It came to be called the Preamble because it so often
is read at the opening of AA meetings. "Much of the phrasing was borrowed from the Foreword to the original edition
of 'Alcoholics Anonymous'...The Preamble soon began to appear in Conference-approved literature and in many other AA publications."
An Excerpt from an Old Preamble
An Alcoholics Anonymous is an alcoholic who through application and adherence to the A.A. program has forsworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverage in any form. The moment he takes so much as one drop of beer, wine, spirits or any other alcoholic beverage he automatically loses all status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A. is not interested in sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain sober for all time. Not being reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want it. . . . . . If you don't have a Big Book, it's time you bought you one. Read it, study it, live with it, loan it, scatter it, and then learn from it what it means to be an A.A.
From "Don't Bypass the Moment:"
c. AA Grapevine, April 2001, page 23
'One day at a time...that's how we do it. Oh sure, I thought skeptically, that sounds great in theory, but how do you live it when what you're really telling me is that I cannot have another drink for the rest of my life? Like most alcoholics, I found the idea of living in the present (instead of obsessing over the past or future) very difficult to grasp. Thanks to A.A., I have learned how self-defeating this particular mindset is...What's the point of having a sober life if I'm not present to enjoy it?"
From "With the aid of A.A., my life took another path:"
© 1991, A.A. in Prison: Inmate to Inmate, page 47-48
"Today, I am sober, but I know that I am only one drink away from a drunk. Today, I can deal with the problems that confront me, and even though they become quite difficult at times, I know that I have the strength to accept and handle them today. My worst sober day is a million times better than any of my best past drinking days."
From "Lingering Moments of Truth:"
c. AA Grapevine, May 2000, page 11
"This is a progressive disease, it always gets worse, never better. There are only three possible outcomes for alcoholics: locked up, covered up, or sobered up. "I stay sober not only by going to meetings, but by helping other alcoholics."
From "Why I Keep Coming Back:"
c. AA Grapevine, May 2001, page 51
"It surprises some people that AA members continue to attend meetings after years of recovery. But I find at least three good reasons for this practice: first, it helps me maintain and enhance my personal sobriety; second, I can contribute to, and benefit from, AA's caring community; and finally, I can stay close to the spiritual ideas which are the basis of our Twelve Step program."
-- the writer has over 50 years of sobriety
From "Something Revolutionary:"
c. 2000, AA Around the World: Adventures in Recovery, page 80
"When I was asked to introduce myself, I did so, for the first time referring to myself as an alcoholic. At this moment, I
felt as if a heavy load had been removed from my back. I was left with a feeling of self-assurance and hope. From that day
on, I have kept going to AA meetings. That was twenty-two years ago. "AA may or may not get me to heaven,
but it surely got me out of hell."
From "He joined A.A. at 22:" - c. 1992, Young People and A.A. (A.A. Pamphlet P-4) - page 33
"I started making meetings on a regular basis. I held onto the fact that I didn't have to be an alcoholic to attend A.A. meetings. I had the desire to stop drinking just for today...Finally, on the Fourth of July, I was graced with independence from alcohol. I made 90 meetings in 90 days and got a sponsor...Today I am first and foremost a member of A.A., dedicated to recovery, service, and unity, but I am also now free to become whatever else I choose without the hindrance of alcohol."
From: "The Three Legacies of A.A"
© 1957, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, page 105
"Other societies have to have law and force and sanction and punishment, administered by authorized people. Happily for us, we found that we need no human authority whatever. We have two authorities
which are far more effective. One is benign, the other malign. There is God, our Father, who very simply says, 'I am waiting for you to do my will.' The other authority is named John Barleycorn [alcohol], and he says, 'You
had better do God's will or I will kill you."
STEP EIGHT: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
© 1990, Daily Reflections, page 241
"Willingness is a peculiar thing for me in that, over a period of time, it seems to come, first with awareness, but then
with a feeling of discomfort, making me want to take some action...I wanted to feel the peace and serenity described in the
Promises...I wanted to learn to live in harmony with myself and others so that I could also live in emotional freedom. The
beginning of the end to my isolation -- from my fellows and from God -- came when I wrote my Eighth Step list."
From "Life Happens:"
c. AA Grapevine, May 2001, page 56
This alcoholism is truly a disease, and one that gains its strength from telling me it isn't a disease.
It's endlessly patient. And getting stronger by the day. I call it a hungry ghost, just over my left shoulder.
Relapse is a process in which getting drunk and overdosing is just the final step."
Language of the Heart page 124-125 – AA is NOT Big Business
Our traditions are set down on paper. But they were written first in our hearts. For each of us knows, instinctively, I think, that AA is not ours to do with as we please. We are but caretakers to preserve the spiritual quality of our Fellowship; keep it for whole for those who will come after us and have need of what has so generously been given to us.
We learned our lesson about money early. We feared organization lest we solidify and destroy ourselves as a movement. At the same time we faced the moral and humane obligation to make our program instantly available to all who ask for it. And they came in ever increasing numbers.
Yes, we’ve had need of money and we’ve had to provide services. But we’ve resolved never to allow either money or the management of our necessary affairs to obscure our spiritual aims. The same loving God whose divine wisdom has shown us that one desperate and shaky drunk, fumbling for a nickel to call for help, looms larger than any "organization" we shall ever have or need!
At Cleveland, July last, 7,000 AAs set their approval to the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. We took our destiny by the hand. Alcoholics Anonymous had grown up.
Three of those Traditions define the services of Alcoholics Anonymous and outlines our collective responsibility for them - management responsibility and money responsibility. The Traditions also say that our trusted servants shall never govern; that they shall always be directly accountable to those they serve.
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c. 1988, The Language of the Heart, page 84
TRADITION SIX: An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
"The core of our A.A. procedure is one alcoholic talking to another, whether that be sitting on a curbstone, in a home, or
at a meeting. It's the message, not the place; it's the talk, not the alms."
From "Physician, Heal Thyself!" c. 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 349
"I tried every gimmick that there was to get some peace of mind, but it was not until I was brought to my alcoholic
knees, when I was brought to a group in my own community with the butcher, the baker, the carpenter and the mechanic, who were able to give me the Twelve Steps, that I was finally given some semblance of an answer to the last half of the First Step."
From "There Is a Solution:" - c. 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 22 & 23
"If hundreds of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it he takes that one drink? "The main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis...They sound like the philosophy of the man who, having a headache, beats himself on the head with a hammer so that he can't feel the ache."
From "Two Questions:"
c. AA Grapevine, October 2001, page 41
"I have never known anyone who came into this program and stayed sober for any period of time who went out and drank, then came back, and could answer yes to two questions.
First question: 'Were you working a Step of the program the day you took the drink?'
Second question: 'Did you ask God for help to not drink on the morning of the day you took the first drink?'"
From "He Who Loses His Life:"
1976, Big Book, page 542
"For me, A.A. is a synthesis of all the philosophy I've ever read, all of the positive, good philosophy, all of it based on love. I have seen that there is only one law, the law of love, and there are only two sins; the first is to interfere with the growth of another human being, and the second is to interfere with one's own growth."
From "New Life in Lurigancho:" - c. 2000, AA Around the World: Adventures in Recovery, page 45
"Last month, I endured an eleven-hour truck ride, sitting on a plank, along a dirt road down from the Andean village I live in, to the nearest city 9,000 feet below on the coast...I could only think, 'How boring. How pointless.' Then I recalled the utter boredom of daily life back in the dark ages, and how I drank to fend off life. Morosely I consoled myself, 'But I'm sober.' Then, great awareness of the miracle galvanized me. 'Yes! I'm sober. I haven't had a drink today.'"
From "AA Tomorrow:" c. 1988, The Language of the Heart, page 311
"Our Fellowship has been permitted to achieve -- though still in miniature -- the 'one world' dream of philosophers. Ours is a world in which we can hotly differ, yet never think of schism or conflict as a solution."
From "No Personal Power:" - c. 1967, As Bill Sees It, page 114
"This brought me to the good healthy realization that there were plenty of situations left in the world over which I had no personal power -- that if I was so ready to admit that to be the case with alcohol, so I must make the same admission with respect to much else. I would have to be still and know that He, not I, was God."
From "Driven:" 1990, Daily Reflections, page 227
"My selfishness was the driving force behind my drinking. I drank to celebrate success and I drank to drown my sorrows. Humility is the answer. I learn to turn my will and my life over to the care of God.
My sponsor tells me that service keeps me sober. Today I ask myself: Have I sought knowledge of God's will for me? Have I done service for my A.A. group?"
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 417
I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes."
c. 1989, Is A.A. for Me?, (A.A. Pamphlet P-36)
"A.A. cannot take care of all your problems. But we can show you how to live one day at a time without alcohol."
-- c. 1990, Daily Reflections, page 374
"Each day I can measure my life by trying to do a little better, by deciding to follow God's will and by making an effort to put the principles of our A.A. program into action."
From "How It Works:" c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 58
"Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what
we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -- then you are ready to take certain steps."
STEP ONE: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.c. 1981, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 24
"Under the lash of alcoholism, we are driven to A.A., and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation. Then, and only then, do we become as open-minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be. We stand ready to do anything which will lift the merciless obsession from us."
From "The Doctor's Opinion:" c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, pages xxviii-xxix
"Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit
it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks -- drinks which they see others taking with impunity....[U]nless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery."
STEP ONE: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
c. 1952, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 21
"But upon entering A.A. we soon take quite another view of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built."
-- c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 28
"A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, 'a design for living' that really works."
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I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes."
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 417
From "Belle of the Bar:"
c. 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 481
"It is so beautiful to get up in the morning not being hung-over and being able to remember where we were the night before. We are aware of the nice things around us, things we never noticed before in our drunken stupor. I planted my first garden this year and am actually excited to see the results."
From "You are not alone:"
c. 1976, A.A. for the Woman (A.A. Pamphlet P-5) - page 8-9
"Perhaps the strangest and most insidious aspect of the disease of alcoholism is its ability to hide itself from the sufferer.
Alcoholics are experts at not being able to see their own illness. They are often the last to admit that they have a drinking problem. "Alcoholism is a progressive illness. Late starting or early, the drinking gets more and more out of control.
"Help is available, but you must make the decision to ask for it...[In A.A.] you will simply meet men and women who have found a way to free themselves from their dependence on alcohol and have begun to repair the damage it has done to their lives. Such freedom and recovery can be yours, too."
STEP FIVE: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
c. AA Grapevine, April 2001, page 20
"My sponsor and I have a special relationship. I don't lie to him, and he doesn't pass judgment on me. He guided
me through my Fourth Step preparation. When it came to the part about sex, I was apprehensive. He scolded, 'You young
guys think you invented sex, but you didn't, so don't worry about shocking me.' So I told the 'old boy' my secrets,
and if anything, he was under-impressed -- even with the secrets that I had sworn to take to my grave."
"Each day I can measure my life by trying
to do a little better, by deciding to follow
God's will and by making an effort to put the
principles of our A.A. program into action."
-- c. 1990, Daily Reflections, page 374
"When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically."
-- c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 64
"I can make every day a New Year's day!" -- c. Daily Reflections page 374
From "Living the Program in All Our Affairs:"
A.A. Grapevine, November 1999, page 18
"Our common problem is not, as we quite naturally may have thought, just to stop drinking period; we can all remember from our past the dreary, unending sequence of stop, restart, stop, restart. The problem is to remain securely
abstinent permanently, albeit we work at it one day at a time. Obviously, no one will stay dry for long or willingly unless life without drink gives him satisfaction. He can arrive at that satisfaction only by learning to live with himself in peace, with his neighbor in charity, and with his conscience in reasonable repose. That, at least for me, is the guide motif of our Steps."
-- author of "The Career Officer" in Alcoholics Anonymous, beginning page 517
From "Breaker, Breaker:"
1998, The Best of the Grapevine 3, pages 93-94
"According to the voice on my CB radio, a young man, apparently drunk, had staggered onto the roadway and been
hit by a truck. Another voice on the radio said, 'I thought God took care of drunks and fools.' I added my comments
by saying He had taken care of me for the past two years.
"Another voice came over the radio. He asked for the guy who hadn't had a drink for two years. 'Go ahead,' I
replied. 'You must be a friend of Bill W.' the voice said. 'My handle is JUST FOR TODAY,' he said. I told him mine was
CAMEL JOCKEY.
"So if you're out there jamming gears and you feel like you're a prisoner of the white lines, give old JUST FOR TODAY or CAMEL JOCKEY a yell on the CB radio...Or just ask for 'Friends of Bill W.'"
From "Why AA Is Anonymous:"
1985, Best of the Grapevine, pages 270-271 & 279
"Powered by alcohol and self-justification, many of us have pursued the phantoms of self-importance and money right up to the disaster stop sign. Then came AA. "At the beginning we sacrificed alcohol. We had to, or it would have
killed us. But we couldn't get rid of alcohol unless we made other sacrifices. "We see anonymity AT THE GENERAL
PUBLIC LEVEL as our chief protection against ourselves, the guardian of all our Traditions, and the greatest symbol
of self-sacrifice that we know."
From "My First Miracle:"
AA Grapevine, June 2001, page 23
"License-plate holder: 'Alcoholics do it in groups.'"
c. AA Grapevine, April 2001, page 23
"'One day at a time...that's how we do it. Oh sure, I thought skeptically, that sounds great in theory, but how do you live it when what you're really telling me is that I cannot have another drink for the rest of my life? Like most alcoholics, I found the idea of living in the present (instead of obsessing over the past or future) very difficult to grasp. Thanks to A.A., I have learned how self-defeating this particular mindset is...What's the point of having a sober life if I'm not present to enjoy it?"
From "A Life Offstage:"
AA Grapevine, July 2001, page 13
"Finally I said, 'Please God, do with me as you wish,' and with that, a tremendous pressure was lifted. I no longer had to be the most important person in the universe. I realized it was much more important to feel happy about who I was than who I thought I should be. My shortcomings were blocking God's sunshine. I could be happy and useful, a worker among workers. "Life is good."
- Anonymous Twelve Stepper
Religion is a way for people to get to heaven, and Spirituality is a way for people to get out of hell.
From "Two Questions:"
AA Grapevine, October 2001, page 41
"'Never get too hungry. Never get too thirsty. Never get too tired. Keep a piece of candy handy...And keep coming to meetings.'"
From "For Sister Ignatia:"
c. 1988, The Language of the Heart, page 375
"We AAs are often heard to say that our Fellowship is founded upon resources that we have drawn from medicine, from religion, and from our own experience of drinking and of recovery. Never before nor since those Akron early days have we witnessed a more perfect synthesis of all these healing forces. Dr. Bob exemplified both medicine and AA; Ignatia and the Sisters of St. Augustine also practiced applied medicine, and their practice was supremely well animated by the wonderful spirit of their community. A more perfect blending of grace and talent cannot be imagined."
STEP NINE: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
c. 1967, As Bill Sees It, page 187
In making amends, it is seldom wise to approach an individual who still smarts from our injustice to him, and announce that we have gone religious. This might be called leading with the chin. Why lay ourselves open to being branded fanatics or religious bores?"
But the man who hears our amends is sure to be impressed with our sincere desire to set right a wrong. He is going to be more interested in a demonstration of good will than in talk of spiritual discoveries.
c. AA Grapevine, November 2001, page 13
From "9/11/01:"
"It has been four days since the catastrophe, and I've noticed two things in this city...the bars are filled and the AA meetings are filled; everyone is trying
to find solace wherever they can. I thank God that I am sober and able to be present each moment, for myself and for others.
"We AA members are together to support, comfort, talk, and listen. And it's important we do this instead of reaching for that first drink...The power of AA has
never been more evident."
- - Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
We realized that the people who wronged us were spiritually sick. When a person offended we said to ourselves, "This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done."
From "The alcoholic in the Oxford Group:"
c. 1988, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, page 54
"Members of the Oxford Group sought to achieve spiritual regeneration by making a surrender to God through rigorous self-examination, confessing their character defects to another human being, making
restitution for harm done to others, and giving without thought of reward[.]"
From "Reprint from 'The A.A. Service Manual:'"
c. 1969, A.A.'s Legacy of Service by Bill W., introduction
"Recovery, Unity, Service -- these are the Three Legacies given to the whole membership of A.A. by its founders and their fellow oldtimers. When this heritage was announced, at the St. Louis Convention in [July] 1955, celebrating A.A.'s 20th birthday, Doctor Bob was already gone. But Bill W. spoke for him and the other pioneers, as well as for himself, in turning over to all of us the responsibility for A.A.'s continuation and growth."
From "A Prison Program...:" c. AA Grapevine, July 2001, page 36
-- Warden Clinton T. Duffy, San Quentin, 1940-1952
"Into the room comes a group of outsiders -- smiling, happy, well-dressed men, some of whom had motored from
distances of 100 miles from the prison. One by one, these men told the inmates, in words that only real alcoholics could
use and understand, of their experiences with the program." "These men were not preaching something
out of books. They were pouring out their hearts and souls."
From "A Nourishing Ingredient:"
- c. 1990, Daily Reflections, page 204
"Wouldn't it be better if I could find a key to unlock the 'magic' of my 'good days' for use on the woes of my 'bad days'?"
"I already HAVE the solution! Instead of trying to run away from my pain and wish my problems away, I can pray for humility! Humility WILL heal the pain. Humility WILL take me out of myself. Humility, that strength granted to me by that 'power greater than myself,' is mine for the asking! Humility will bring balance back into my life. Humility will allow
me to accept my humanness joyously."
From "Win or Lose:"
© AA Grapevine, August 2001, page 25
"Joe C., my sponsor...gave me some good advice. 'Take the words SUCCESS and FAILURE out of your vocabulary. Replace them with HONESTY and EFFORT, he said.' "One day, another old-timer...asked, 'Why are you so afraid of losing? Don't you trust God?' Heatedly, I point out that like him, I was in marketing and was paid to succeed.
"His response: 'Don't you know that success and failure share a common denominator?' He paused and then really
let me have it. 'Both are temporary!'"
From "Long-term Hope:"
c. 1990, Daily Reflections, page 167
"The beauty of A.A. lies in knowing that my life, with God's help, will improve. The A.A. journey becomes richer, the understanding becomes truth, the dreams become realities -- and today becomes forever."
From: "Five-Time Loser Wins":
© 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 459
"Through A.A., we can experience freedom from self. After all, it was self (you, me) that stood in our own way, that ran the show and ran ourselves into bankruptcy, that hurt the ones we loved. All Twelve Steps of A.A. are designed to kill the old self (deflate the old ego) and build a new, free self."
From "The alcoholic can recover:"
© . 1976, Is There an Alcoholic in Your Life? (A.A. Pamphlet P-30) - page 8
"No reliable evidence exists that anyone who ever drank alcoholically has been able to return, for long, to normal
social drinking. There is no such thing as being 'a little bit alcoholic.' Because the illness progresses in stages, some
alcoholics show more extreme symptoms than others. Once problem drinkers cross over the line into alcoholism, however, they cannot turn back."
From "The Doctor's Opinion:"
c. 1976 and 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page xxvii
"We doctors have realized for a long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics,
but its application presented difficulties beyond our conception. What with our ultra-modern standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not
well equipped to apply the powers of good that lie outside our synthetic knowledge."
From "Facing the Music:"
c. AA Grapevine, December 2001, page 14
"What I've discovered I want is not just a freedom from fear, but freedom to live quietly and at peace with myself away from seeking others' adulation.
"Having had a spiritual awakening...I see plenty of proof that I'm more useful to myself and to others that way, even if there's no one dancing and cheering at the end of the day."
Tradition Two:
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as he may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
From "Ham on Wry:"
c. AA Grapevine, Aug 2001, page 59
"In AA, it doesn't matter who is right -- only who is left."
From "Too Young?"
c. 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 320
"I started to take A.A. seriously, and A.A. gave me a new way of life. After a time, my mind began to clear of the fog
that had covered it. My memory slowly returned. I felt better mentally and physically. Once I did have a slip -- tried
drinking again -- but the A.A.'s tell me not to worry about yesterday, because nobody can change it, and not to worry about tomorrow, because it hasn't come yet. Live twenty-four hours at a time, they say. And it works."
TRADITION SEVEN: Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
c. 1995, Self-Support: Where Money and Spirituality Mix (A.A. Pamphlet F-3), page 5
"As Bill W. put it in 1957, 'Our spiritual way of life is safe for future generations if, as a Society, we resist the temptation to receive money from the outside world. But...our groups, our areas, and A.A. as a whole will not function unless our services are sufficient and their bills are paid.' "'When we are generous with the hat we give a token that we are grateful for our blessings and evidence that we are eager to share what we have found with all those who still suffer.'"
TRADITION FIVE: Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
c. 1988, The Language of the Heart, page 82
"Because it has now become plain enough that only a recovered alcoholic can do much for a sick alcoholic, a
tremendous responsibility has descended upon us all, an obligation so great that it amounts to a sacred trust. For to
our kind, those who suffer alcoholism, recovery is a matter of life or death. So the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous
cannot, it dare not, ever be diverted from its primary purpose."
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