Almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness. Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn't quite belong.

— AS BILL SEES IT, p. 90

What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.

— ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85

We know that God lovingly watches over us. We know that when we turn to Him, all will be well with us, here and hereafter.

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 105

I pray for the willingness to remember that I am a child of God, a divine soul in human form, and that my most basic and urgent life-task is to accept, know, love and nurture myself. As I accept myself, I am accepting God's will. As I know and love myself, I am knowing and loving God. As I nurture myself I am acting on God's guidance.

Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 105

But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun.

— AS BILL SEES IT, p. 10

Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way.

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 101

. . . praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 96

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him. . . .

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 96

The first words I speak when arising in the morning are, "I arise, O God, to do Thy will." This is the shortest prayer I know and it is deeply ingrained in me. Prayer doesn't change God's attitude toward me; it changes my attitude toward God. As distinguished from prayer, meditation is a quiet time, without words. To be centered is to be physically relaxed, emotionally calm, mentally focused and spiritually aware.

This . . . has to do with the quality of faith. . . . In no deep or meaningful sense had we ever taken stock of ourselves. . . . We had not even prayed rightly. We had always said, "Grant me my wishes" instead of "Thy will be done."

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 32

. . . when they [self-examination, meditation and prayer] are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life.

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 98