A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• Pg.15: My wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusiasm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems.
• Pg.45: With that rejection we imagined we had abandoned the God idea entirely.
• Pg.48: This sort of thinking had to be abandoned.
• Pg.59: We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
• Pg.63: We thought well before taking this step making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him.
• Pg.164: Abandon yourself to God as you understand God.

• Pg.137: This kind of waste goes on unabated.

• Pg.140: Normal drinkers are not so affected, nor can they understand the aberrations of the alcoholic.

• Pg.144:When the man is presented with this volume it is best that no one tell him he must abide by its suggestions.

• Pg.8: Pg.7 It was a devastating blow to my.... Pg 8 ... pride. I, who had thought so well of myself and my abilities,of my capacity to surmount obstacles, was cornered at last.
• Pg.21: He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him.
• Pg.30: We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking.
• Pg.31: If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him.
• Pg.33: Certain drinkers, who would be greatly insulted if called alcoholics, are astonished at their inability to stop.
• Pg.34: This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it - this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.
• Pg.37: How can such a lack of proportion, of the ability to think straight, be called anything else?
• Pg.41: "As soon as I regained my ability to think, I went carefully over that evening in Washington.
• Pg.47: Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, (Pg48) we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.
• Pg.54: Did we not have confidence in our ability to think?
• Pg.141:You might say you appreciate his abilities, would like to keep him, but cannot if he continues to (Pg 142) drink.
• Pg.143: Can you have every confidence in his ability to recover?

• Pg.54 Yes, we had been faithful, abjectly faithful to the God of Reason.

• Pg.xxvii: On the other hand-and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand-once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules.
• Pg.46: We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God.
• Pg.51: When many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness of the Presence of God is today the most important fact of their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.
• Pg.74: It is important that he be able to keep a confidence; that he fully understand and approve what we are driving at;(Pg.75) that he will not try to change our plan.
• Pg.78: We may be short in our accounts and unable to make good.
• Pg.86: We may not be able to determine which course to take.
• Pg.97: For the type of alcoholic who is able and willing to (Pg.98) get well, little charity, in the ordinary sense of the word, is needed or wanted.
• Pg.127: They should be thankful he is sober and able to be of this world once more.
• Pg.128: He is unable to focus on anything else.
• Pg.141: I know, in my own particular case, that nothing my company could have done would have stopped me for, so long as I was able to hold my position, I could not possibly realize how serious my situation was.
• Pg.142: If he says yes, does he really mean it, or down inside does he think he is fooling you, and that after rest and treatment he will be able to get away with a few drinks now and then?
• Pg.144: If the book is read the moment the patient is able, while acutely depressed, realization of his condition may come to him.
• Pg.146: After your man has gone along without drinking for a few months, you may be able to make use of his services with other employees who are giving you the alcoholic run-around - provided, of course, they are willing to have a third party in the picture.
• Pg.148: He will be able to take a position with such a man which is eminently fair and square.
• Pg.152: Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it.
• Pg.155: His call to the clergyman led him presently to a certain resident of the town, who, though formerly able and respected, was then nearing the nadir of alcoholic despair.
• Pg.158: "God ought to be able to do anything."
• Pg.162: Understanding our work, he can do this with an eye to selecting those who are willing and able to recover on a spiritual basis.
• Pg.163: The doctor proved to be able and exceedingly anxious to adopt any workable method of handling the situation.

• Pg.xviv: In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe-that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind.
• Pg.23: In a vague way their families and friends sense that these drinkers are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse himself from his lethargy and assert his power of will.
• Pg.30: The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.
• Pg.114: If he is already committed to an institution, but can convince you and your doctor that he means business, give him a chance to try our method, unless the doctor thinks his mental condition too abnormal or dangerous.
• Pg.122: Cessation of drinking is but the first step away from a highly strained, abnormal condition.
• Pg.140: But these scrapes can generally be charged, no matter how bad, to the abnormal action of alcohol on his mind.
• Pg.155: Painfully aware of being somehow abnormal, the man did not fully realize what it meant to be alcoholic.

• Pg.xxiv: You may rely absolutely on anything they say about themselves.
• Pg.14: My friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs.
• Pg.17: We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action.
• Pg.24: At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail.
• Pg.25: The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous.
• Pg.39: But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.
• Pg.40: The story he told is most instructive, for here was a chap absolutely convinced he had to stop drinking, who had no excuse for drinking, who exhibited splendid judgment and determination in all his other concerns, yet was flat on his back nevertheless.
• Pg.58: Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.
• Pg.120: Make him feel absolutely free to come and go as he likes.
• Pg.132: We absolutely insist on enjoying life.
• Pg.155: A spiritual experience, he conceded, was absolutely necessary, but the price seemed high upon the basis suggested.

• Pg.139: Those who drink moderately may be more annoyed with an alcoholic than a total abstainer would be.

• Pg.xxviii: The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.
• Dr Bob's Story: Unlike most of our crowd, I did not get over my craving for liquor much during the first two and one-half years of abstinence.

• Pg.25: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.
• Pg.39: Fred would not believe himself an alcoholic, much less accept a spiritual remedy for his problem.
• Pg.47: But I cannot accept as surely true the many articles of faith which are so plain to him.
• Pg.47: Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, (pg.48) we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.
• Pg.48: Nevertheless, the twentieth century readily accepts theories of all kinds, provided they are firmly grounded in fact.
• Pg.96: You are sure to find someone desperate enough to accept with eagerness what you offer.
• Pg.97: Should they accept and practice spiritual principles, there is a much better chance that the head of the family will recover.
• Pg.143: If your man accepts your offer, it should be pointed out that physical treatment is but a small part of the picture.

• Pg.48: Why this ready acceptance?

• Pg.xxvi: If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement.
• Pg.14: These were revolutionary and drastic proposals, but the moment I fully accepted them, the effect was electric.
• Pg.47: That was great news to us, for we had assumed we could not make use of spiritual principles unless we accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to believe.
• Pg.80: While drinking, he accepted a sum of money from a bitterly-hated business rival, giving him no receipt for it.
• Pg.134: This may hang on for months, long after their mother has accepted dad's new way of living and thinking.
• Pg.139: Without much ado, he accepted the principles and procedure that had helped us.
• Pg.145: In fact, he may say almost anything if he has accepted our solution which, as you know, demands rigorous honesty.

• Pg.xxv: (xxiv) More often than not, it is imperative that a man's brain be cleared before he is approached, as he has then a better (xxv) chance of understanding and accepting what we have to offer.
• Pg.31: Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums - we could increase the list ad infinitum.
• Pg.47: Afterward, we found ourselves accepting many things which then seemed entirely out of reach.
• Dr. Bob's Story: If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you.

• Pg.18: Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.
• Pg.25: He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.
• Pg.31: Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet.
• Pg.50: This Power has in each case accomplished the miraculous, the humanly impossible.
• Pg.78: (pg.77) We are there to sweep off our side of the street, realizing that nothing worth while (pg.78) can be accomplished until we do so, never trying to tell him what he should do.
• Pg.91: But say nothing, for the moment, of how that was accomplished.
• Pg.100: If you have been successful in solving your own domestic problems, tell the newcomer's family how that was accomplished.
• Pg.111: If he gets the idea that you are a nag or killjoy, your chance of accomplishing anything useful may be zero.
• Pg.118: We do not like the thought that the contents of a book or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we struggled for years.
• Pg.128: While grateful that he drinks no more, they may not like the idea that God has accomplished the miracle where they failed.
• Pg.144: Meanwhile, we are sure a great deal can be accomplished by the use of the book alone.
• Pg.148: We think this method of approach will accomplish several things.
• Pg.163: To duplicate, with such backing, what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience and labor.
• Spiritual Experience: What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self discipline.

• Pg.xiii: We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic.
• Pg.xxiv: It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account.
• Pg.3: At the end of it, my reports to Wall Street procured me a position there and the use of a large expense account.
• Pg.29: We hope no one will consider these self-revealing accounts in bad taste.
• Pg.39: Fred is partner in a well known accounting firm.
• Pg.40: One day I went to Washington to present some accounting evidence to (pg.41) a government bureau.
• Pg.51: Even in the present century, American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers' first successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
• Pg.65: Threatens to fire me for my drinking and padding my expense account.
• Pg.78: We may be short in our accounts and unable to make good.
• Pg.78: Maybe it's only a petty offense such as padding the expense account.
• Pg.92: Give him an account of the struggles you made to stop.
• Pg.102: Let your friends know they are not to change their habits on your account.
• Pg.106: The checking account melted like snow in June.
• Pg.123: God, they believe, almost owes this recompense on a long overdue account.
• Pg.124: That is true only if one is willing to turn the past to good account.
• Pg.127: He can scarcely square the account in his lifetime.
• Pg.145: He may, for example, reveal that he has padded his expense account or that he has planned to take your best customers away from you.
• Pg.145: Can you charge this off as you would a bad account and start fresh with him?
• Pg.153: Here is a brief account:

• Pg.13: My schoolmate visited me, and I fully acquainted him with my problems and deficiencies.
• Pg.74: If we cannot or would rather not do this, we search our acquaintance for a close-mouthed, understanding friend.
• Pg.76: As we look over the list of business acquaintances and friends we have hurt, we may feel diffident about going to some of them on a spiritual basis.
• Pg.89: Perhaps you are not acquainted with any drinkers who want to recover.
• Pg.112: He probably has several alcoholics among his own acquaintances.
• Pg.131: New acquaintances who know nothing of alcoholism might be made and thoughtful consideration given their needs.
• Pg.154: Unless he took some drinks, he might not have the courage to scrape an acquaintance and would have a lonely week-end.
• Pg.158: He came through an acquaintance who had heard the good news.
• Pg.159: He now returned home, leaving behind his first acquaintance, the lawyer and the devil-may-care chap.
• Pg.161: (pg.160) He and his (pg.161) wife would leave elated by the thought of what they could now do for some stricken acquaintance and his family.

• Pg.xxiii: In the course of his third treatment he acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery.
• Pg.xxv: Many years ago one of the leading contributors to this book came under our care in this hospital and while here he acquired some ideas which he put into practical application at once.
• Pg.4: I acquired the impeccable coat of tan one sees upon the well-to-do.
• Pg.26: Above all, he believed he had acquired such a profound knowledge of the inner workings of his mind and its hidden springs that relapse was unthinkable.
• Pg.28: We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired.
• Pg.33: We doubt if many of them can do it, because none will really want to stop, and hardly one of them, because of the peculiar mental twist already acquired, will find he can win out.
• Pg.40: He was positive that this humiliating experience, plus the knowledge he had acquired, would keep him sober the rest of his life. Self-knowledge would fix it.
• Pg.77: It may be he has done us more harm than we have done him and, though we may have acquired a better attitude toward him, we are still not too keen about admitting our faults.

• Pg.95: If he is not interested in your solution, if he expects you to act only as a banker for his financial difficulties or a nurse for his sprees, you may have to drop him until he changes his mind.
• Pg.97: A kindly act once in a while isn't enough.
• Pg.112: If you act upon these principles, your husband may stop or moderate.
• Pg.113: Wait until repeated stumbling convinces him he must act, for the more you hurry him the longer his recovery may be delayed.
• Pg.147: You act like one.

• Pg.xxvi: We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
• Pg.9: They had told of a simple religious idea and a practical program of action.
• Pg.17: We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action.
• Pg.42: "Then they outlined the spiritual answer and program of action which a hundred of them had followed successfully.
• Pg.42: "But the program of action, though entirely sensible, was pretty drastic.
• Pg.61: And do not his action make each of them wish to retaliate, snatching all they can get out of the show?
• Pg.63: Next we launched out on a course of vigorous action, the first step of which is a personal housecleaning, (pg.64) which many of us had never attempted.
• Pg.72: This requires action on our part, which, when completed, will mean that we have admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our defects.
• Pg.76: Now we need more action, without which we find that "Faith without works is dead."
• Pg.80: Before taking drastic action which might implicate other people we secure their consent.
• Pg.80: His action met wide-spread approval, and today he is one of the most trusted citizens of his town.
• Pg.83: Their defects may be glaring, but the chances are that our own actions are partly responsible.
• Pg.85: It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels.
• Pg.85: But we must go further and that means more action.
• Pg.87: We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas.
• Pg.87: As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.
• Pg.88: There is action and more action.
• Pg.93: To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action.
• Pg.94: Outline the program of action, explaining how you made a self-appraisal, how you straightened out your past and why you are now endeavoring to be helpful to him.
• Pg.94: Tell him you once felt as he does, but you doubt whether you would have made much progress had you not taken action.
• Pg.98: Yet we do go to great extremes to provide each other with these very things, when such action is warranted.
• Pg.98: When your prospect has made such reparation as he can to his family, and has thoroughly explained to them the new principles by which he is living, he should proceed to put those principles into action at home.
• Pg.113: They can urge action without arousing hostility.
• Pg.140: Can it be appreciated that he has been a victim of crooked thinking, directly caused by the action of alcohol on his brain?
• Pg.140: But these scrapes can generally be charged, no matter how bad, to the abnormal action of alcohol on his mind.
• Pg.142: After satisfying yourself that your man wants to recover and that he will go to any extreme to do so, you may suggest a definite course of action.
• Pg.157: The two friends spoke of their spiritual experience and told him about the course of action they carried out.

• Pg.85: Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities.
• Pg.89: It works when other activities fail.
• Pg.104: Our activities in behalf of women who drink are on the increase.
• Pg.120: Your husband will see at once that he must redouble his spiritual activities if he expects to survive.
• Pg.129: Though the family does not fully agree with dad's spiritual activities, they should let him have his head.
• Pg.131: Father may have laid aside for years all normal activities - clubs, civic duties, sports.
• Pg.131: Instead of developing new channels of activity for themselves, mother and children? demand that he stay home and make up the deficiency.
• Pg.131: Father will necessarily spend much time with other alcoholics, but this activity should be balanced.
• Pg.131: Both saw that they must keep spiritually active.

• Pg.60: Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way.
• Pg.61: In trying to make these arrangements our actor may sometimes be quite virtuous.
• Pg.61: Our actor is self-centered - ego-centric, as people like to call it nowadays.
• Pg.73: He is very much the actor.

• Pg.29: These give a fair cross section of our membership and a clear-cut idea of what has actually happened in their lives.
• Pg.39: But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.
• Pg.49: Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception whatever.
• Pg.55: Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God.
• Pg.66: In that state, the wrong-doing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill.
• Pg.72: In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient.
• Pg.94: Actually, he may be helping you more than you are helping him.
• Pg.115: Unless they actually need protection from their father, it is best not to take sides in any argument he has with them while drinking.
• Pg.140: I well remember the shock I received when a prominent doctor in Chicago told me of cases where pressure of the spinal fluid actually ruptured the brain.
• Pg.149: That company may harbor many actual or potential alcoholics.

• Pg.144: If the book is read the moment the patient is able, while acutely depressed, realization of his condition may come to him.
• Pg.157: The man in the bed was told of the acute poisoning from which he suffered, how it deteriorates the body of an alcoholic and warps his mind.

• Pg.xxiii: A well-known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital specializing in alcoholic and drug addiction, gave Alcoholics Anonymous this letter:
• Pg.xxv: The subject presented in this book seems to me to be of paramount importance to those afflicted with alcoholic addiction.
• Pg.xxv: I say this after many years’ experience as Medical Director of one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and drug addiction.
• Pg.162: (pg.161) In one of (pg.162) these there is a well-known hospital for the treatment of alcoholic and drug addiction.

• Pg.60: No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles.

• Pg.xxvi: The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false.
• Pg.xxvii: Though the aggregate of recoveries resulting from psychiatric effort is considerable, we physicians must admit we have made little impression upon the problem as a whole.
• Pg.xxviii: There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot take a drink.
• Pg.30: Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics.
• Pg.37: But even in this type of beginning we are obliged to admit that our justification for a spree was insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened.
• Pg.38: We, who have been through the wringer, have to admit if we substituted alcoholism for jay-walking, the illustration would fit us exactly.
• Pg.38: We admit we have some of these symptoms, but we have not gone to the extremes you fellows did, nor are we likely to, for we understand ourselves so well after what you have told us that such things cannot happen again.
• Pg.78: Sometimes the man we are calling upon admits his own fault, so feuds of years' standing melt away in an hour.
• Pg.81: Undoubtedly we should admit our fault.
• Pg.93: Admit that he probably knows more about it than you do, but call to his attention the fact that however deep his faith and knowledge, he could not have applied it or he would not drink.
• Pg.99: Little by little the family may see their own defects and admit them.
• Pg.109: He admits this is true, but is positive that he will do better.
• Pg.110: He admits he cannot drink like other people, but does not see why.
• Pg.127: As each member of a resentful family begins to see his shortcomings and admits them to the others, he lays a basis for helpful discussion.
• Pg.135: He had to painfully admit that and mend his spiritual fences.
• Pg.164: Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows.

• Pg.xxix: He frankly admitted and believed that for him there was no hope.
• Pg.11: Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat.
• Pg.13: I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing; that without Him I was lost.
• Pg.46: As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps.
• Pg.59: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
• Pg.59: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
• Pg.59: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
• Pg.67: We admitted our wrongs honestly and were willing to set these matters straight.
• Pg.72: We have admitted certain defects; we have ascertained in a rough way what the trouble is; we have put our finger on the weak items in our personal inventory.
• Pg.72: This requires action on our part, which, when completed, will mean that we have admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our defects.
• Pg.76: Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable?
• Pg.78: We have already admitted this in confidence to another person, but we are sure we would be imprisoned or lose our job if it were known.
• Pg.93: (pg.92) Even though your protégé may not have entirely (pg.93) admitted his condition, he has become very curious to know how you got well.
• Pg.135: He admitted he was overdoing these things, but frankly said that he was not ready to stop.

• Pg.13: I expressed my entire willingness to approach these individuals, admitting my wrong.
• Pg.39: Far from admitting he was an alcoholic, he told himself he came to the hospital to rest his nerves.
• Pg.40: He was interested and conceded that he had some of the symptoms, but he was a long way from admitting that he could do nothing about it himself.
• Pg.61: Admitting he may be somewhat at fault, he is sure that other people are more to blame.
• Pg.72: We think we have done well enough in admitting these things to ourselves.
• Pg.77: It may be he has done us more harm than we have done him and, though we may have acquired a better attitude toward him, we are still not too keen about admitting our faults.
• Pg.79: We suggested he write his first wife admitting his faults and asking forgiveness.
• Pg.92: You will soon have your friend admitting he has many, if not all, of the traits of the alcoholic.
• Pg.155: Why, he argued, should he lose the remainder of his business, only to bring still more suffering to his family by foolishly admitting his plight to people from whom he made his livelihood?

• Pg.114: If such women adopt a spiritual way of life their road will be smoother.
• Pg.130: Nothing will help the man who is off on a spiritual tangent so much as the wife who adopts a sane spiritual program, making a better practical use of it.
• Pg.143: While on the subject of confidence, can you adopt the attitude that so far as you are concerned this will be a strictly personal matter, that his alcoholic derelictions, the treatment about to be undertaken, will never be discussed without his consent?
• Pg.163: The doctor proved to be able and exceedingly anxious to adopt any workable method of handling the situation.

• Pg.11: For myself, I had adopted those parts which seemed convenient and not too difficult; the rest I disregarded.
• Pg.153: Suppose now that through you several families have adopted this way of life.

• Pg.xiii: And besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all.
• Pg.110: Some, but not all of us, think it has its advantages when reasonably used.
• Pg.125: This is a condition which, in ordinary life, would produce untold grief; there might be scandalous gossip, laughter at the expense of other people, and a tendency to take advantage of intimate information.
• Pg.141: Seeing your attempt to understand and help, some men will try to take advantage of your kindness.
• Pg.146: Being on a radically different basis of life, he will never take advantage of the situation.

• Pg.60: Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

• Pg.81: (pg.80) Perhaps we are mixed up with women in a fashion we (pg.81) wouldn't care to have advertised.

• Pg.70: We avoid hysterical thinking or advice.
• Pg.73: We have seldom told them the whole truth nor have we followed their advice.
• Pg.90: This advice is given for his family also.
• Pg.96: Having had the experience yourself, you can give him much practical advice.
• Pg.106: We began to ask medical advice as the sprees got closer together.
• Pg.121: We realize that we have been giving you much direction and advice.
• Pg.133: One of the many doctors who had the opportunity of reading this book in manuscript form told us that the use of sweets was often helpful, of course depending upon a doctor's advice.

• Pg.160: Many a distracted wife has visited this house to find loving and understanding companionship among women who knew her problem, to hear from the lips of their husbands what had happened to them, to be advised how her own wayward mate might be hospitalized and approached when next he stumbled.

• Pg.11: Judging from what I had seen in Europe and since, the power of God in human affairs was negligible, the Brotherhood of Man a grim jest.
• Pg.14: My friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs.
• Pg.19: A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective homes, occupations and affairs.
• Pg.28: This should be an entirely personal affair which each one decides for himself in the light of past associations, or his present choice.
• Pg.60: Having had a spiritual awakening? as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
• Pg.80: If he opened that old affair, he was afraid it would destroy the reputation of his partner, disgrace his family and take away his means of livelihood.
• Pg.81: Perhaps he is having a secret and exciting affair with "the girl who understands."
• Pg.105: We have had retaliatory love affairs with other men.
• Pg.120: The slightest disposition on your part to guide his appointments or his affairs so he will not be tempted will be noticed.
• Pg.124: For example, we know of situations in which the alcoholic or his wife have had love affairs.
• Pg.124: Then, under one provocation or another, the aggrieved one would unearth the old affair and angrily cast its ashes about.

• Pg.18: We hope this volume will inform and comfort those who are, or who may be affected.
• Pg.33: To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have.
• Pg.65: Affects my:
• Pg.74: Such parts of our story we tell to someone who will understand, yet be unaffected.
• Pg.125: A man may criticize or laugh at himself and it will affect others favorably, but criticism or ridicule coming from another often produces the contrary effect.
• Pg.126: The family will be affected also, pleasantly at first, as they feel their money troubles are about to be solved, then not so pleasantly as they find themselves neglected.
• Pg.140: Normal drinkers are not so affected, nor can they understand the aberrations of the alcoholic.

• Pg.126: If not irritable, he may seem dull and boring, not gay and affectionate as the family would like him to be.

• Pg.35: Moreover, he would lose his family for whom he had a deep affection.
• Pg.82: Affections have been uprooted.
• Pg.104: What they say will apply to nearly everyone bound by ties of blood or affection to an alcoholic.
• Pg.107: For a while they would be their old sweet selves, only to dash the new structure of affection to pieces once more.
• Pg.128: They may be jealous of a God who has stolen dad's affections.

• Pg.28: Those having religious affiliations will find here nothing disturbing to their beliefs or ceremonies.

• Pg.pxiii: We simply wish to be helpful to those who are afflicted.
• Pg.xxv: The subject presented in this book seems to me to be of paramount importance to those afflicted with alcoholic addiction.
• Pg.92: But insist that if he is severely afflicted, there may be little chance he can recover by himself.
• Pg.116: We wives found that, like everybody else, we were afflicted with pride, self-pity, vanity and all the things which go to make up the self-centered person; and we were not above selfishness or dishonesty.

• Pg.51: Even in the present century, American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers' first successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
• Pg.78: Nor are we afraid of disclosing our alcoholism on the theory it may cause financial harm.
• Pg.78: We must lose our fear of creditors no matter how far we have to go, for we are liable to drink if we are afraid to face them.
• Pg.80: If he opened that old affair, he was afraid it would destroy the reputation of his partner, disgrace his family and take away his means of livelihood.
• Pg.85: We are neither cocky nor are we afraid.
• Pg.86: Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid?
• Pg.116: You may be afraid your husband will lose his position; you are thinking of the disgrace and hard times which will befall you and the children.
• Pg.157: I'm afraid to go out the door.

• Pg.5: Shortly afterward I came home drunk.
• Pg.47: Afterward, we found ourselves accepting many things which then seemed entirely out of reach.
• Pg.133: Their services are often indispensable in treating a newcomer and in following his case afterward.
• Pg.136: Not long afterward he had called me from Hartford on two successive days, so drunk he could hardly speak.
• Pg.141: Afterward, his revulsion will be terrible.
• Pg.159: They were willing, by day or night, to place a new man in the hospital and visit him afterward.

• Pg.10: I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory.
• Pg.24: We are without defense against the first drink.
• Pg.41: Not only had I been off guard, I had made no fight whatever against the first drink.
• Pg.43: Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink.
• Pg.44: At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics.
• Pg.47: Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you.
• Pg.49: We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion.
• Pg.93: There is no use arousing any prejudice he may have against certain theological terms and conceptions about which he may already be confused.
• Pg.100: You should warn against arousing resentment or jealousy.
• Pg.123: Today's life is measured against that of other years and, when it falls short, the family may be unhappy.
• Spiritual Experience: “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” Herbert Spencer

• Pg.124: Then, under one provocation or another, the aggrieved one would unearth the old affair and angrily cast its ashes about.

• Pg.9: I was aghast.

• Pg.87: As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.

• Pg.28: In the following chapter, there appears an explanation of alcoholism, as we understand it, then a chapter addressed to the agnostic.
• Pg.44: To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.
• Pg.44: But cheer up, something like half of us thought we were atheists or agnostics.
• Pg.45: Here difficulty arises with agnostics.
• Pg.46: Yes, we of agnostic temperament have had these thoughts and experiences.
• Pg.49: Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.
• Pg.52: We agnostics and atheists were sticking to the idea that self-sufficiency would solve our problems.
• Pg.60: Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
• Pg.93: If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God.

• Pg.53: We agnostically inclined would not feel satisfied with a proposal which does not lend itself to reasonable approach and interpretation.

• Pg.17: We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action.
• Pg.31: Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic.
• Pg.31: Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, ..., agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, ... - we could increase the list ad infinitum.
• Pg.35: He agreed he was a real alcoholic and in a serious condition.
• Pg.43: Many doctors and psychiatrists agree with our conclusions.
• Pg.50: Whether we agree with a particular approach or conception seems to make little difference.
• Pg.50: On one proposition, however, these men and women are strikingly agreed.
• Pg.73: Psychologists are inclined to agree with us.
• Pg.76: Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.
• Pg.93: If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God.
• Pg.108: (pg.107) Why was it, when these dangers were (pg.108) pointed out that they agreed, and then got drunk again immediately?
• Pg.117: We do not mean that you have to agree with your husband whenever there is an honest difference of opinion.
• Pg.129: Though the family does not fully agree with dad's spiritual activities, they should let him have his head.
• Pg.131: This means trouble, unless the family watches for these tendencies in each other and comes to a friendly agreement about them.
• Pg.148: Your junior executive may not agree with the contents of our book.
• Pg.155: When our friend related his experience, the man agreed that no amount of will power he might muster could stop his drinking for long.
• Pg.163: And with such good effect that the doctor agreed to a test among his patients and certain other alcoholics from a clinic which he attends.

• Pg.10: Few people really are, for that means blind faith in the strange proposition that this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes nowhere.

• Pg.9: There was that time we had chartered an airplane to complete a jag!
• Pg.41: I have a shadowy recollection of being in an airplane bound for New York and of finding a friendly taxicab driver at the landing field instead of my wife.
• Pg.52: Only thirty years later the conquest of the air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.

• Pg.xxiv: The doctor's theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interests us.
• Pg.xxvi: We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
• Pg.xxvi: These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
• Pg.xxviii: There is the type who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger.
• Pg.xxviii: Then there are types entirely normal in every respect except in the effect alcohol has upon them.
• Pg.8: Alcohol was my master.
• Pg.13: At the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time.
• Pg.22: We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to (pg.23) stop.
• Pg.26: Yet he had no control whatever over alcohol.
• Pg.33: If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol.
• Pg.38: However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.
• Pg.48: In this respect alcohol was a great persuader.
• Pg.58: Remember that we deal with alcohol-cunning, baffling, (pg.59) powerful.
• Pg.59: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
• Pg.66: The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again.
• Pg.66: We could not wish them away any more than alcohol.
• Pg.76: Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.
• Pg.84: And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol.
• Pg.85: We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe.
• Pg.98: The men who cry for money and shelter before conquering alcohol, are on the wrong track.
• Pg.98: He clamors for this or that, claiming he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for.
• Pg.101: (pg.100) People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we (pg.101) must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all.
• Pg.101: Ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory he would escape the alcohol problem.
• Pg.102: At a proper time and place explain to all your friends why alcohol disagrees with you.
• Pg.103: We would not even do the cause of temperate drinking any good, for not one drinker in a thousand likes to be told anything about alcohol by one who hates it.
• Pg.108:
• Pg.114: Some men have been so impaired by alcohol that they cannot stop.
• Pg.119: After all, your family is reunited, alcohol is no longer a problem and you and your husband are working together toward an undreamed-of future.
• Pg.132: We have been dealing with alcohol in its worst aspect.
• Pg.133: A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight nor do twisted thinking and depression vanish in a twinkling.
• Pg.134: Alcohol is so sexually stimulating to some men that they have over-indulged.
• Pg.140: Can it be appreciated that he has been a victim of crooked thinking, directly caused by the action of alcohol on his brain?
• Pg.140: But these scrapes can generally be charged, no matter how bad, to the abnormal action of alcohol on his mind.
• Pg.143: Whatever the method, its object is to thoroughly clear mind and body of the effects of alcohol.
• Pg.146: Being somewhat weakened, and faced with physical and mental readjustment to a life which knows no alcohol, he may overdo.
• Pg.151: As we became subjects of King Alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down.
• Pg.152: He cannot picture life without alcohol.
• Pg.152: Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it.

• Pg.xxiii: To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the main purpose of this book.
• Pg.xxiii: We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic.
• Pg.xxiii: Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person.
• Pg.xxiii: We would like it understood that our alcoholic work is an avocation.
• Pg.xiv: We shall be interested to hear from those who are getting results from this book, particularly from those who have commenced work with other alcoholics.
• Pg.xxiii: A well-known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital specializing in alcoholic and drug addiction, gave Alcoholics Anonymous this letter:
• Pg.xxiii: In late 1934 I attended a patient who, though he had been a competent businessman of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless.
• Pg.xxiii: As part of his rehabilitation he commenced to present his conceptions to other alcoholics, impressing upon them that they must do likewise with still others.
• Pg.xxiv: In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe-that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind.
• Pg.xxiv: In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.
• Pg.xxiv: Though we work out our solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane, we favor hospitalization for the alcoholic who is very jittery or befogged.
• Pg.xxv: The subject presented in this book seems to me to be of paramount importance to those afflicted with alcoholic addiction.
• Pg.xxv: I say this after many years’ experience as Medical Director of one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and drug addiction.
• Pg.xxv: 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.
• Pg.xxv: The unselfishness of these men as we have come to know them, the entire absence of profit motive, and their community spirit, is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in this alcoholic field.
• Pg.xxv: They believe in themselves, and still more in the Power which pulls chronic alcoholics back from the gates of death.
• Pg.xxv: Of course an alcoholics ought to be freed from his physical (pg.xxvi) craving for liquor, and this often requires a definite hospital procedure, before psychological measures can be of maximum benefit.
• Pg.xxvi: We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
• Pg.xxvi: The message which can interest and hold these alcoholic people must have depth and weight.
• Pg.xxvi: If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement.
• Pg.xxvi: To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one.
• Pg.xxviii: The classification of alcoholics seems most difficult, and in much detail is outside the scope of this book.
• Pg.xxviii: Much has been written pro and con, but among physicians, the general opinion seems to be that most chronic alcoholics are doomed.
• Pg.xxix: His alcoholic problem was so complex, and his depression so great, that we felt his only hope would be through what we then called "moral psychology," and we doubted if even that would have any effect.
• Pg.xxx: I earnestly advise every alcoholic to read this book through, and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray.
• Pg.2: Potential alcoholic that I was, I nearly failed my law course.
• Pg.7: My brother-in-law is a physician, and through his kindness and that of my mother I was placed in a nationally-known hospital for the mental and physical rehabilitation of alcoholics.
• Pg.7: It relieved me somewhat to learn that in alcoholics the will is amazingly weakened when it comes to combating liquor, though it often remains strong in other respects.
• Pg.9: Rumor had it that he had been committed for alcoholic insanity.
• Pg.9: So that was it - last summer an alcoholic crackpot; now, I suspected, a little cracked about religion.
• Pg.14: While I lay in the hospital the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what had been so freely given me.
• Pg.14: And how appallingly true for the alcoholic!
• Pg.14: For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his (pg.15) spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead.
• Pg.15: My wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusiasm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems.
• Pg.15: This sometimes nearly drove me back to drink, but I soon found that when all other measures failed, work with another alcoholic would save the day.
• Pg.16: An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature.
• Pg.18: But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life.
• Pg.18: Highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to persuade an alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve.
• Pg.18: But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours.
• Pg.20: If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking -"What do I have to do?"
• Pg.21: But what about the real alcoholic?
• Pg.22: This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary.
• Pg.22: Opinions vary considerably as to why the alcoholic reacts differently from normal people.
• Pg.22: We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men.
• Pg.23: The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this.
• Pg.23: Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.
• Pg.23: Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic's drinking bout creates.
• Pg.23: If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.
• Pg.23: The tragic truth is that if the man be a real alcoholic, the happy day may not arrive.
• Pg.24: At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail.
• Pg.24: The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink.
• Pg.24: The alcoholic may say to himself in the most casual way, "It won't burn me this time, so here's how!"
• Pg.24: When this sort of thinking is fully established in an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless locked up, may die or go permanently insane
• Pg.24: These stark and ugly facts have been confirmed by legions of alcoholics (pg.25) throughout history.
• Pg.25: If you are as seriously alcoholics as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution.
• Pg.27: Some of our alcoholic readers may think they can do without spiritual help.
• Pg.27: The doctor said: "You have the mind of a chronic alcoholic.
• Pg.27: Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences.
• Pg.27: "...With many individuals the methods which I employed are successful, but I have never been successful with an alcoholic of your description."
• Pg.29: Our hope is that many alcoholic men and women, desperately in need, will see these pages, and we believe that it is only by fully disclosing ourselves and our problems that they will be persuaded to say, "Yes, I am one of them too; I must have this thing."
• Pg.30: Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics.
• Pg.30: We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics.
• Pg.30: We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking.
• Pg.30: We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control.
• Pg.30: We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness.
• Pg.30: Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of (pg.31) our kind like other men.
• Pg.31: Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class.
• Pg.31: We do not like to pronounce? any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself.
• Pg.32: But the difficulty is that few alcoholics have enough desire to stop while there is yet time.
• Pg.32: Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic has - that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men.
• Pg.33: We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic."
• Pg.33: Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years.
• Pg.33: Certain drinkers, who would be greatly insulted if called alcoholics, are astonished at their inability to stop.
• Pg.33: We, who are familiar with the symptoms, see large numbers of potential alcoholics among young (pg.34) people everywhere.
• Pg.34: If he is a real alcoholic and very far advanced, there is scant chance of success.
• Pg.34: Though you may be able to stop for a considerable period, you may yet be a potential alcoholic.
• Pg.34: The experiment of quitting for a period of time will be helpful, but we think we can render an even greater service to alcoholic sufferers and perhaps to the medical (pg.35) fraternity.
• Pg.35: What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of the first drink?
• Pg.35: He agreed he was a real alcoholic and in a serious condition.
• Pg.36: He had much knowledge about himself as an alcoholic.
• Pg.39: But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.
• Pg.39: This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience.
• Pg.39: Yet, he is alcoholic.
• Pg.39: Far from admitting he was an alcoholic, he told himself he came to the hospital to rest his nerves.
• Pg.39: Fred would not believe himself an alcoholic, much less accept a spiritual remedy for his problem.
• Pg.41: I now remembered what my alcoholic friends had told me, how they prophesied that if I had an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come - I would drink (pg.42) again.
• Pg.42: I knew from that moment that I had an alcoholic mind.
• Pg.42: They grinned, which I didn't like so much, and then asked me if I thought myself alcoholic and if I were really licked this time.
• Pg.42: They piled on me heaps of evidence to the effect that an alcoholic mentality, such as I had exhibited in Washington, was a hopeless condition.
• Pg.42: But the moment I made up my mind to go through with the process, I had the curious feeling that my alcoholic condition was relieved, as in fact it proved to be.
• Pg.43: Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems.
• Pg.43: "What you say about the general hopelessness of the average alcoholic's plight is, in my opinion, correct. ..."
• Pg.43: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink.
• Pg.44: We hope we have made clear the distinction between the alcoholic and the nonalcoholic.
• Pg.44: If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic.
• Pg.44: To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.
• Pg.44: To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.
• Pg.44: At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics.
• Pg.45: Many times we talk to a new man and watch his hope rise as we discuss his alcoholic problems and explain our fellowship.
• Pg.48: Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions.
• Pg.53: When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing.
• Pg.56: One night, when confined in a hospital, he was approached by an alcoholic who had known a spiritual experience.
• Pg.56: His alcoholic problem was taken away.
• Pg.60: 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
• Pg.60: Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
• Pg.60: (a.) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
• Pg.62: (pg.61) He is like the retired business man who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all would be Utopia (pg.62) if the rest of the world would only behave; the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and the alcoholic who has lost all and is locked up.
• Pg.62: They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so.
• Pg.62: Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness.
• Pg.64: It destroys more alcoholics than anything else.
• Pg.66: But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave.
• Pg.66: They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.
• Pg.73: More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life.
• Pg.73: Small wonder many in the medical profession have a low opinion of alcoholics and their chance for recovery!
• Pg.74: Of course, we sometimes encounter people who do not understand alcoholics.
• Pg.78: Most alcoholics owe money.
• Pg.79: Therefore, we are not to be the hasty and foolish martyr who would needlessly sacrifice others to save himself from the alcoholic pit.
• Pg.81: We doubt if, in this respect, alcoholics are fundamentally much worse than other people.
• Pg.81: After a few years with an alcoholic, a wife gets worn out, resentful and uncommunicative.
• Pg.82: Sometimes we hear an alcoholic say that the only thing he needs to do is to keep sober.
• Pg.82: Passing all understanding is the patience mothers and wives have had with alcoholics.
• Pg.82: The alcoholic is like a tornado roaring his way through the lives of others.
• Pg.88: We alcoholics are undisciplined.
• Pg.89: Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.
• Pg.89: Carry this message to other alcoholics!
• Pg.89: Ministers and doctors are competent and you can learn much from them if you wish, but it happens that because of your own drinking experience you can be uniquely useful to other alcoholics.
• Pg.91: When he sees you know all about the drinking game, commence to describe yourself as an alcoholic.
• Pg.92: If he is alcoholic, he will understand you at once.
• Pg.92: If you are satisfied that he is a real alcoholic, begin to dwell on the hopeless feature of the malady.
• Pg.92: And be careful not to brand him as an alcoholic.
• Pg.92: If he sticks to the idea that he can still control his drinking, tell him that possibly he can - if he is not too alcoholic.
• Pg.92: Doctors are rightly loath to tell alcoholic patients the whole story unless it will serve some good purpose.
• Pg.92: You will soon have your friend admitting he has many, if not all, of the traits of the alcoholic.
• Pg.92: If his own doctor is willing to tell him that he is alcoholic, so much the better.
• Pg.94: Make it plain he is under no obligation to you, that you hope only that he will try to help other alcoholics when he escapes his own difficulties.
• Pg.95: You will be most successful with alcoholics if you do not exhibit any passion for crusade or reform.
• Pg.95: Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection.
• Pg.95: But point out that we alcoholics have much in common and that you would like, in any case, to be friendly.
• Pg.96: . Search out another alcoholic and try again.
• Pg.96: To spend too much time on any one situation is to deny some other alcoholic an opportunity to live and be happy.
• Pg.97: We seldom allow an alcoholic to live in our homes for long at a time.
• Pg.97: Though an alcoholic does not respond, there is no reason why you should neglect his family.
• Pg.97: For the type of alcoholic who is able and willing to (pg.98) get well, little charity, in the ordinary sense of the word, is needed or wanted.
• Pg.98: The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon our assistance rather than upon God.
• Pg.99: These things will come to pass naturally and in good time provided, however, the alcoholic continues to demonstrate that he can be sober, considerate, and helpful, regardless of what anyone says or does.
• Pg.99: Let the alcoholic continue his program day by day.
• Pg.99: Let no alcoholic say he cannot recover unless he has his family back.
• Pg.100: Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do.
• Pg.101: An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status.
• Pg.101: If the alcoholic tries to shield himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion than ever.
• Pg.101: To a person who has had experience with an alcoholic, this may seem like tempting Providence, but it isn't.
• Pg.102: But if you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead!
• Pg.102: Some of us still serve it to our friends provided they are not alcoholic.
• Pg.103: Every new alcoholic looks for this spirit among us and is immensely relieved when he finds we are not witch burners.
• Pg.103: A spirit of intolerance might repel alcoholics whose lives could have been saved, had it not been for such stupidity.
• Pg.103: Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility
• Pg.104: What they say will apply to nearly everyone bound by ties of blood or affection to an alcoholic.
• Pg.107: Had we fully understood the nature of the alcoholic illness, we might have behaved differently.
• Pg.108: These are some of the questions which race through the mind of every woman who has an alcoholic husband.
• Pg.108: Of course, there is such a thing as incompatibility, but in nearly every instance the alcoholic only seems to be unloving and inconsiderate; it is usually because he is warped and sickened that he says and does these appalling things.
• Pg.108: Try not to condemn your alcoholic husband no matter what he says or does.
• Pg.108: An alcoholic of this temperament may be quick to use this chapter as a club over your head.
• Pg.109: He would probably be insulted if he were called an alcoholic.
• Pg.109: Of those who keep on, a good number will become true alcoholics after a while.
• Pg.109: These are the earmarks of a real alcoholics.
• Pg.111: This may lay the groundwork for a friendly talk about his alcoholic problem.
• Pg.112: He probably has several alcoholics among his own acquaintances.
• Pg.112: Show him that as alcoholics, the writers of the book understand.
• Pg.113: If he is lukewarm or thinks he is not an alcoholic, we suggest you leave him alone.
• Pg.114: For years we have been working with alcoholics committed to institutions.
• Pg.114: Since this book was first published, A.A. has released thousands of alcoholics from asylums and hospitals of every kind.
• Pg.117: Never forget that resentment is a deadly hazard to an alcoholic.
• Pg.118: We do not like the thought that the contents of a book or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we struggled for years.
• Pg.119: Still another difficulty is that you may become jealous of the attention he bestows on other people, especially alcoholics.
• Pg.119: We find it a real mistake to dampen his enthusiasm for alcoholic work.
• Pg.119: We suggest that you direct some of your thought to the wives of his new alcoholic friends.
• Pg.119: It is probably true that you and your husband have been living too much alone, for drinking many times isolates the wife of an alcoholic.
• Pg.122: The alcoholic, his wife, his children, his "in-laws," each one is likely to have fixed ideas about the family's attitude towards himself or herself.
• Pg.122: A doctor said to us," Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic.
• Pg.123: The family of an alcoholic longs for the return of happiness and security.
• Pg.123: Now and then the family will be plagued by spectres from the past, for the drinking career of almost every alcoholic has been marked by escapades, funny, humiliating, shameful or tragic.
• Pg.124: The alcoholic's past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is almost the only one!
• Pg.124: For example, we know of situations in which the alcoholic or his wife have had love affairs.
• Pg.125: In most cases, the alcoholic survived this ordeal without relapse, but not always.
• Pg.125: Everyone knows about the others' alcoholic troubles.
• Pg.125: We alcoholics are sensitive people.
• Pg.125: Many alcoholics are enthusiasts.
• Pg.129: Even if he displays a certain amount of neglect and irresponsibility towards the family, it is well to let him go as far as he likes in helping other alcoholics.
• Pg.130: Whether the family has spiritual convictions or not, they may do well to examine the principles by which the alcoholic member is trying to live.
• Pg.131: Father will necessarily spend much time with other alcoholics, but this activity should be balanced.
• Pg.131: Alcoholics who have derided religious people will be helped by such contacts.
• Pg.131: Being possessed of a spiritual experience, the alcoholic will find he has much in common with these people, though he may (pg.132) differ with them on many matters.
• Pg.133: He thought all alcoholics (pg.134) should constantly have chocolate available for its quick energy value at times of fatigue.
• Pg.134: The alcoholic may find it hard to re-establish friendly relations with his children.
• Pg.135: Whether the family goes on a spiritual basis or not, the alcoholic member has to if he would recover.
• Pg.136: He knows the alcoholic as the employer sees him.
• Pg.137: What irony - I became an alcoholic myself!
• Pg.137: That he has not always done so for the alcoholic is easily understood.
• Pg.137: To him the alcoholic has often seemed a fool of the first magnitude.
• Pg.138: One day he told me about an executive of the same bank who, from his description, was undoubtedly alcoholic.
• Pg.138: Why not bring him into contact with some of our alcoholic crowd?
• Pg.139: To me, this incident illustrates lack of understanding as to what really ails the alcoholic, and lack of knowledge as to what part employers might profitably take in salvaging their sick employees.
• Pg.139: Those who drink moderately may be more annoyed with an alcoholic than a total abstainer would be.
• Pg.139: Drinking occasionally, and understanding your own reactions, it is possible for you to become quite sure of many things which, so far as the alcoholic is concerned, are not always so.
• Pg.139: When dealing with an alcoholic, there may be a natural annoyance that a man could be so weak, stupid and irresponsible.
• Pg.139: A look at the alcoholic in your organization is many times illuminating.
• Pg.140: If this presents difficulty, re-reading chapters two and three, where the alcoholic sickness is discussed at length might be worth while.
• Pg.140: No wonder an alcoholic is strangely irrational.
• Pg.140: Normal drinkers are not so affected, nor can they understand the aberrations of the alcoholic.
• Pg.140: When drinking, or getting over a bout, an alcoholic, sometimes the model of honesty when (pg.141) normal, will do incredible things.
• Pg.141: This is not to say that all alcoholics are honest and upright when not drinking.
• Pg.142: You ask, because many alcoholics, being warped and drugged, do not want to quit.
• Pg.142: If he temporizes and still thinks he can ever drink again, even beer, he might as well be discharged after the next bender which, if an alcoholic, he is almost certain to have.
• Pg.142: For most alcoholics who are drinking, or who are just getting (pg.143) over a spree, a certain amount of physical treatment is desirable, even imperative.
• Pg.143: While on the subject of confidence, can you adopt the attitude that so far as you are concerned this will be a strictly personal matter, that his alcoholic derelictions, the treatment about to be undertaken, will never be discussed without his consent?
• Pg.145: The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear.
• Pg.145: Sometimes we alcoholics have an idea that people are trying to pull us down.
• Pg.145: One instance comes to mind in which a malicious individual was always making friendly little jokes about an alcoholic's drinking exploits.
• Pg.145: In another case, an alcoholic was sent to a hospital for treatment.
• Pg.146: As a class, alcoholics are energetic people.
• Pg.146: He may wish to do a lot for other alcoholics and something of the sort may come up during business hours.
• Pg.146: After your man has gone along without drinking for a few months, you may be able to make use of his services with other employees who are giving you the alcoholic run-around - provided, of course, they are willing to have a third party in the picture.
• Pg.146: An alcoholic who has recovered, but holds a relatively unimportant job, can talk to a man with a better position.
• Pg.146: Long experience with alcoholic excuses naturally arouses suspicion.
• Pg.147: You might let them know you have no quarrel with the alcoholics of your organization.
• Pg.147: If you are an alcoholic, you are a mighty sick man.
• Pg.148: He need not, and often should not show it to his alcoholic prospect.
• Pg.148: He will have no further reason for covering up an alcoholic employee.
• Pg.148: No man should be fired just because he is alcoholic.
• Pg.149: (pg.148)"... I don't see how you can be of any help to us for, as you see, we don't have (pg.149) any alcoholic problem."
• Pg.149: We, who have collectively seen a great deal of business life, at least from the alcoholic angle, had to smile at this gentleman's sincere opinion.
• Pg.149: That company may harbor many actual or potential alcoholics.
• Pg.149: Even if you feel your organization has no alcoholic problem, it might pay to take another look down the line.
• Pg.149: Of course, this chapter refers to alcoholics, sick people, deranged men.
• Pg.149: As to them, his policy is undoubtedly sound, but he did not distinguish between such people and the alcoholic.
• Pg.149: It is not to be expected that an alcoholic employee will receive a disproportionate amount of time and attention.
• Pg.150: (pg.149) There are two (pg.150) alcoholic employees, who produce as much as five normal salesmen.
• Pg.152: Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly like people in a sinking ship.
• Pg.154: But what about his responsibilities - his family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah - yes, those other alcoholics?
• Pg.155: His call to the clergyman led him presently to a certain resident of the town, who, though formerly able and respected, was then nearing the nadir of alcoholic despair.
• Pg.155: Painfully aware of being somehow abnormal, the man did not fully realize what it meant to be alcoholic.
• Pg.155: He had, of course, the familiar alcoholic obsession that few knew of his drinking.
• Pg.156: They explained their need and inquired if she had a first class alcoholic prospect.
• Pg.157: The man in the bed was told of the acute poisoning from which he suffered, how it deteriorates the body of an alcoholic and warps his mind.
• Pg.158: So, you see, there were three alcoholics in that town, who now felt they had to give to others what they had found, or be sunk.
• Pg.159: Though they knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary.
• Pg.160: Many an alcoholic who entered there came away with an answer.
• Pg.161: Alcoholics are being attracted from far and near.
• Pg.162: (pg.161) In one of (pg.162) these there is a well-known hospital for the treatment of alcoholic and drug addiction.
• Pg.162: Some day we hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find a Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination.
• Pg.163: We know of a former alcoholic who was living in a large community.
• Pg.163: He had lived there but a few weeks when he found that the place probably contained more alcoholics per square mile than any city in the country.
• Pg.163: And with such good effect that the doctor agreed to a test among his patients and certain other alcoholics from a clinic which he attends.

• Pg.xiii: We, OF Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.
• Pg.xiii: When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, we urge each of our Fellowship to omit his personal name, designating himself instead as “a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.”
• Pg.xiv: Alcoholics Anonymous
• Pg.xxiii: We of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the reader will be interested in the medical estimate of the plan of recovery described in this book.
• Pg.xxiii: A well-known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital specializing in alcoholic and drug addiction, gave Alcoholics Anonymous this letter:
• Pg.17: We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill.
• Pg.42: "Two of the members of Alcoholics Anonymous came to see me. ..."
• Pg.90: When you discover a prospect for Alcoholics Anonymous, find out all you can about him.
• Pg.94: On your first visit tell him about the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• Pg.103: Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility.
• Pg.104: We want the wives of Alcoholics Anonymous to address the wives of men who drink too much.
• Pg.104: As wives of Alcoholics Anonymous, we would like you to feel that we understand as perhaps few can.
• Pg.113: Many of Alcoholics Anonymous were like that.
• Pg.125: We families of Alcoholics Anonymous keep few skeletons in the closet.
• Pg.135: Though he is now a most effective member of Alcoholics Anonymous, he still smokes and drinks coffee, but neither his wife nor anyone else stands in judgment.
• Pg.152: It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous.
• Pg.152: High and low, rich and poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• Pg.153: They will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who must find a way out.
• Pg.157: Two days later, a future fellow of Alcoholics Anonymous stared glassily at the strangers beside his bed.
• Pg.161: A community thirty miles away has fifteen fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• Pg.161: But life among Alcoholics Anonymous is more than attending gatherings and visiting hospitals.
• Pg.162: Some day we hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find a Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination.
• Pg.163: Some of them may sink and perhaps never get up, but if our experience is a criterion, more than half of those approached will become fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.

• Pg.xiii: When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, we urge each of our Fellowship to omit his personal name, designating himself instead as “a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.”
• Pg.xxiii: I have specialized in the treatment of alcoholism for many years.
• Pg.xxiv: (pg.xxiii) These facts appear to be of extreme medical importance; because of the extraordinary possibilities of rapid (pg.xxiv) growth inherent in this group they may mark a new epoch in the annals of alcoholism.
• Pg.xxvii: I do not hold with those who believe that alcoholism is entirely a problem of mental control.
• Pg.xxix: About one year prior to this experience a man was brought in to be treated for chronic alcoholism.
• Pg.17: This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism.
• Pg.28: In the following chapter, there appears an explanation of alcoholism, as we understand it, then a chapter addressed to the agnostic.
• Pg.31: Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic.
• Pg.32: We have heard of a few instances where people, who showed definite signs of alcoholism, were able to stop for a long period because of an overpowering desire to do so.
• Pg.34: This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it - this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.
• Pg.35: We told him what we knew of alcoholism and the answer we had found.
• Pg.38: We, who have been through the wringer, have to admit if we substituted alcoholism for jay-walking, the illustration would fit us exactly.
• Pg.40: (pg.39) We told him what (pg.40) we knew about alcoholism.
• Pg.40: Let him tell you about it: "I was much impressed with what you fellows said about alcoholism, and? I frankly did not believe it would be possible for me to drink again.
• Pg.42: Well, just that did happen and more, for what I had learned of alcoholism did not occur to me at all.
• Pg.44: In the preceding chapters you have learned something of alcoholism.
• Pg.44: If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us (pg.45) would have recovered long ago.
• Pg.56: Post-war disillusionment, ever more serious alcoholism, impending mental and physical collapse, brought him to the point of self-destruction.
• Pg.60: (b.) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
• Pg.78: Nor are we afraid of disclosing our alcoholism on the theory it may cause financial harm.
• Pg.85: We are not cured of alcoholism.
• Pg.92: We suggest you do this as we have done it in the chapter on alcoholism.
• Pg.92: Continue to speak of alcoholism as an illness, a fatal malady.
• Pg.92: But you may talk to him about the hopelessness of alcoholism because you offer a solution.
• Pg.94: Maybe you have disturbed him about the question of alcoholism.
• Pg.101: In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure.
• Pg.107: Under these conditions we naturally made mistakes. Some of them rose out of ignorance of alcoholism.
• Pg.108: Perhaps your husband has been living in that strange world of alcoholism where everything is distorted and exaggerated.
• Pg.112: (pg.111) When a discussion does arise, you might suggest he (pg.112) read this book or at least the chapter on alcoholism.
• Pg.112: Thus you may succeed in interesting him in alcoholism.
• Pg.112: Show him your copy of this book and tell him what you have found out about alcoholism.
• Pg.113: (pg.112) If you think he will be shy of a spiritual remedy, ask him to look at the chapter on (pg.113) alcoholism.
• Pg.114: Sometimes there are cases where alcoholism is complicated by other disorders.
• Pg.114: Some men cannot or will not get over alcoholism.
• Pg.116: If God can solve the age-old riddle of alcoholism, He can solve your problems too.
• Pg.118: Another feeling we are very likely to entertain is one of resentment that love and loyalty could not cure our husbands of alcoholism.
• Pg.118: At such moments we forget that alcoholism is an illness over which we could not possibly have had any power.
• Pg.127: We know there are difficult wives and families, but the man who is getting over alcoholism must remember he did much to make them so.
• Pg.131: New acquaintances who know nothing of alcoholism might be made and thoughtful consideration given their needs.
• Pg.132: When we see a man sinking into the mire that is alcoholism, we give him first aid and place what we have at his disposal.
• Pg.137: Here were three exceptional men lost to this world because I did not understand alcoholism as I do now.
• Pg.138: This seemed to me like an opportunity to be helpful, so I spent two hours talking about alcoholism, the malady, and described the symptoms and results as well as I could.
• Pg.141: You now know more about alcoholism.
• Pg.142: At this point, it might be well to explain alcoholism, the illness.
• Pg.144: Whether your employee likes it or not, he will learn the grim truth about alcoholism.
• Pg.147: I have been learning something about alcoholism.
• Pg.148: Alcoholism may be causing your organization considerable damage in its waste of time, men and reputation.
• Pg.149: But alcoholism - well, they just don't believe they have it.
• Pg.149: He might be shocked if he knew how much alcoholism is costing his organization a year.
• Pg.153: Our hope is that when this chip of a book is launched on the world tide of alcoholism, defeated drinkers will seize upon it, to follow its suggestions.
• Pg.155: He told how he lived in constant worry about those who might find out about his alcoholism.
• Pg.157: Said one of the visitors, "We're giving you a treatment for alcoholism."

• Pg.6: An all night place supplied me with a dozen glasses of ale.
• Pg.41: I had commenced to drink as carelessly as though the cocktails were ginger ale.
• Pg.154: Of course he couldn't drink, but why not sit hopefully at a table, a bottle of ginger ale before him?

• Pg.xviii: Then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post and placed such a compelling picture of A.A. before the general public that alcoholics in need of help really deluged us.

• Pg.23: If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis.

• Pg.79: Maybe we are divorced, and have remarried but haven't kept up the alimony to number one.
• Pg.79: Because of resentment and drinking, he had not paid alimony to his first wife.

• Pg.xxiv: The doctor's theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interests us.
• Pg.xxvi: We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
• Pg.xxviii: This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity.

• Pg.xxv: Later, he requested the privilege of being allowed to tell his story to other patients here and with some misgiving, we consented.
• Pg.69: One school would allow man no flavor for his fare and the other would have us all on a straight pepper diet.
• Pg.97: We seldom allow an alcoholic to live in our homes for long at a time.

• Pg.2: Out of this alloy of drink and speculation, I commenced to forge the weapon that one day would turn in its flight like a boomerang and all but cut me to ribbons.

• Pg.123: There will be alluring shortcuts and by-paths down which they may wander and lose their way.
• Pg.162: This practice enables us to lend a hand, at the same time avoiding certain alluring distractions of the road, about which any traveling man can inform you.

• Pg.3: My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all day and almost every night.
• Pg.7: I knew, and almost welcomed the idea.
• Pg.10: I could almost hear the sound of the preacher's voice as I sat, ...
• Pg.24: The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us.
• Pg.25: Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation.
• Pg.51: Almost everyone knows the reason.
• Pg.51: The spirit of modern scientific inquiry, research and invention was almost unknown.
• Pg.52: Only thirty years later the conquest of the air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.
• Pg.52: The Wright brothers' almost childish faith that they could build a machine which would fly was the main- spring of their accomplishment.
• Pg.60: On that basis we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good.
• Pg.72: Almost (pg.73) invariably they got drunk.
• Pg.105: We came to live almost alone.
• Pg.122: Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic.
• Pg.123: God, they believe, almost owes this recompense on a long overdue account.
• Pg.123: Now and then the family will be plagued by spectres from the past, for the drinking career of almost every alcoholic has been marked by escapades, funny, humiliating, shameful or tragic.
• Pg.124: The alcoholic's past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is almost the only one!
• Pg.125: We do talk about each other a great deal, but we almost invariably temper such talk by a spirit of love and tolerance.
• Pg.132: For his sake, we do recount and almost relive the horrors of our past.
• Pg.145: If he temporizes and still thinks he can ever drink again, even beer, he might as well be discharged after the next bender which, if an alcoholic, he is almost certain to have.
• Pg.145: In fact, he may say almost anything if he has accepted our solution which, as you know, demands rigorous honesty.
• Pg.154: Bitterly discouraged, he found himself in a strange place, discredited and almost broke.

• Pg.20: How many times people have said to us: "I can take it or leave it alone. Why can't he?"
• Pg.20: They can take it or leave it alone.
• Pg.31: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, ... - we could increase the list ad infinitum.
• Pg.34: If anyone questions whether he has entered this dangerous area, let him try leaving liquor alone for one year.
• Pg.34: This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it - this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.
• Pg.56: But later, alone in his room, he asked himself this question: "Is it possible that all the religious people I have known are wrong?"
• Pg.63: But it is better to meet God alone than with one who might misunderstand.
• Pg.69: God alone can judge our sex situation.
• Pg.75: We can be alone at perfect peace and ease.
• Pg.91: See your man alone, if possible
• Pg.93: He may be an example of the truth that faith alone is insufficient.
• Pg.96: If you leave such a person alone, he may soon become convinced that he cannot recover by himself.
• Pg.105: We came to live almost alone.
• Pg.113: If he is lukewarm or thinks he is not an alcoholic, we suggest you leave him alone.
• Pg.119: It is probably true that you and your husband have been living too much alone, for drinking many times isolates the wife of an alcoholic.
• Pg.139: As a moderate drinker, you can take your liquor or leave it alone.
• Pg.144: Meanwhile, we are sure a great deal can be accomplished by the use of the book alone.
• Pg.158: Then he added, "He sure didn't do much for me when I was trying to fight this booze racket alone."
• Pg.163: You are saying to yourself: "I'm jittery and alone. I couldn't do that."

• Pg.49: Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.

• Pg.25: We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.
• Pg.44: To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are? not always easy alternatives to face.

• Pg.xxiv: Though we work out our solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane, we favor hospitalization for the alcoholic who is very jittery or befogged.
• Pg.xxvi: We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.

• Pg.10: I had always believed in a Power greater than myself.
• Pg.21: He is always more or less insanely drunk.
• Pg.31: In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse.
• Pg.33: We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic."
• Pg.36: Here was the threat of commitment, the loss of family and position, to say nothing of that intense mental and physical suffering which drinking always caused him.
• Pg.37: But there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink.
• Pg.37: But even in this type of beginning we are obliged to admit that our justification for a spree was insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened.
• Pg.44: To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.
• Pg.60: On that basis we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good.
• Pg.63: "...May I do Thy will always!"
• Pg.69: We remembered always that our sex powers were God-given and therefore good, neither to be used lightly or selfishly nor to be despised and loathed.
• Pg.74: The rule is we must be hard on ourself, but always considerate of others.
• Pg.81: Not always, we think.
• Pg.82: Keep it always in sight that we are dealing with that most terrible human emotion-jealousy.
• Pg.84: They will always materialize if we work for them.
• Pg.101: These attempts to do the impossible have always failed.
• Pg.105: Our friends have counseled chucking the men and we have done so with finality, only to be back in a little while hoping, always hoping.
• Pg.105: Positions were always in jeopardy or gone.
• Pg.111: He may seek someone else? to console him - not always another man.
• Pg.114: When they become too dangerous, we think the kind thing is to lock them up, but of course a good doctor should always be consulted.
• Pg.121: If that is so we are sorry, for we ourselves don't always care for people who lecture us.
• Pg.125: In most cases, the alcoholic survived this ordeal without relapse, but not always.
• Pg.127: For us, material well-being always followed spiritual progress; it never preceded.
• Pg.137: That he has not always done so for the alcoholic is easily understood.
• Pg.139: Drinking occasionally, and understanding your own reactions, it is possible for you to become quite sure of many things which, so far as the alcoholic is concerned, are not always so.
• Pg.141: Nearly always, these antics indicate nothing more than temporary conditions.
• Pg.145: One instance comes to mind in which a malicious individual was always making friendly little jokes about an alcoholic's drinking exploits.
• Pg.146: The employer cannot play favorites, but he can always defend a man from needless provocation and unfair criticism.
• Pg.151: There was always one more attempt - and one more failure.
• Pg.157: "Who are you fellows, and why this private room? I was always in a ward before."
• Pg.161: They knew they had a host of new friends; it seemed they had known these strangers always.
• Pg.164: God will determine that, so you must remember that your real reliance is always upon Him.

• Pg.xxv: The cases we have followed through have been most interesting; in fact, many of them are amazing.
• Pg.7: It relieved me somewhat to learn that in alcoholics the will is amazingly weakened when it comes to combating liquor, though it often remains strong in other respects.
• Pg.9: I was amazed.
• Pg.15: On talking to a man there, I would be amazingly lifted up and set on my feet.
• Pg.83: If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
• Pg.128: He may demand that the family find God in a hurry, or exhibit amazing indifference to them and say he is above worldly considerations.

• Pg.32: He was ambitious to succeed in business, but saw that he would get nowhere if he drank at all.
• Pg.64: In most cases it was found that our self-esteem, our pocketbooks, our ambitions, our personal relationships (pg.65) (including sex) were hurt or threatened.
• Pg.65: Was it our self-esteem, our security, our ambitions, our personal, or sex relations, which had been interfered with?

li>Pg.8: What would I not give to make amends.
• Pg.59: 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
• Pg.59: 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
• Pg.69: We must be willing to make amends where we have done harm, provided that we do not bring about still more harm in so doing.
• Pg.76: We have a list of all persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends.
• Pg.84: We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone.

• Pg.17: We are average Americans.
• Pg.26: A certain American business man had ability, good sense, and high character.
• Pg.26: He had consulted the best known American psychiatrists.
• Pg.28: The distinguished American psychologist, William James, in his book "Varieties of Religious Experience," indicates a multitude of ways in which men have discovered God.
• Pg.50: As a celebrated American statesman put it, "Let's look at the record."
• Pg.51: Even in the present century, American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers' first successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
• Pg.138: Here, for instance, is a typical example: An officer of one of the largest banking institutions in America knows I no longer drink.

• Pg.4: The local banker watched me whirl fat checks in and out of his till with amused skepticism.
• Pg.49: We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.

• Pg.55: In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found.
• Pg.70: We have listed and analyzed our resentments.
• Pg.83: We ought to sit down with the family and frankly analyze the past as we now see it, being very careful not to criticize them.
• Pg.104: We want to analyze mistakes we have made.

• Pg.37: In some circumstances we have gone out deliberately to get drunk, feeling ourselves justified by nervousness, anger, worry, depression, jealousy or the like.
• Pg.66: If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.
• Pg.88: We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions.
• Pg.108: When he angers you, remember that he is very ill.
• Pg.135: His wife is one of those persons who really feels there is something rather sinful about these commodities, so she nagged, and her intolerance finally threw him into a fit of anger.

• Pg.18: If a person has cancer all are sorry for him and no one is angry or hurt.
• Pg.61: He becomes angry, indignant, self-pitying.
• Pg.64: We listed people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry.
• Pg.64: We asked ourselves why we were angry.
• Pg.67: 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."
• Pg.106: The bill collectors, the sheriffs, the angry taxi drivers, the policemen, the bums, the pals, and even the ladies they sometimes brought home - our husbands thought we were so inhospitable. "joykiller, nag, wet blanket"- that's what they said
• Pg.111: The first principle of success is that you should never be angry.
• Pg.113: But don't remind him of this after he had been drinking, for he may be angry.
• Pg.124: Then, under one provocation or another, the aggrieved one would unearth the old affair and angrily cast its ashes about.

li>Pg.107: As animals on a treadmill, we have patiently and wearily climbed, falling back in exhaustion after each futile effort to reach solid ground.

• Pg.18: But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life.

• Pg.139: Those who drink moderately may be more annoyed with an alcoholic than a total abstainer would be.
• Pg.139: When dealing with an alcoholic, there may be a natural annoyance that a man could be so weak, stupid and irresponsible.

• Pg.xiii: It is important that we remain anonymous because we are too few, at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication.
• Pg.19: We have concluded to publish an anonymous volume setting forth the problem as we see it.
• Pg.157: Said the future Fellow Anonymous: "Damn little to laugh about that I can see."

• Pg.xxix: Perhaps I can best answer this by relating one of my experiences.
• Pg.7: Surely this was the answer - self-knowledge.
• Pg.18: That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, ... that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, ... no lectures to be endured - these are the conditions
• Pg.20: It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically.
• Pg.22: Perhaps there never will be a full answer to these questions.
• Pg.22: We cannot answer the riddle.
• Pg.35: We told him what we knew of alcoholism and the answer we had found.
• Pg.42: "Then they outlined the spiritual answer and program of action which a hundred of them had followed successfully. ..."
• Pg.56: While pondering the answer he felt as though he lived in hell.
• Pg.69: The right answer will come, if we want it.
• Pg.76: If we can answer to our satisfaction, we then look at Step Six.
• Pg.86: We are often surprised how the right answer come after we have tried this for a while.
• Pg.102: f you answer these questions satisfactorily, you need have no apprehension.
• Pg.110: His case presents additional questions which we shall try to answer for you.
• Pg.115: Avoid answering these inquiries as much as you can.
• Pg.138: The only answer I could make was that if the man followed the usual pattern, he would go on a bigger bust than ever.
• Pg.144: Ask him if he thinks he has the answer.
• Pg.153: The practical answer is that since these things have happened among us, they can happen with you.
• Pg.160: Many an alcoholic who entered there came away with an answer.
• Pg.164: The answers will come, if your own house is in order.

• Pg.13: My friend promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems.
• Pg.108: We hope this book has answered some of them.

• Pg.48: Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism.

• Pg.12: The word God still aroused a certain antipathy.

• Pg.45: Some of us have been violently anti-religious.

• Pg.21: Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social.

• Pg.40: He soon indicated he was anxious to see us.
• Pg.74: We say this because we are very anxious that we talk to the right person.
• Pg.91: But urge them not to be over-anxious, for that might spoil matters.
• Pg.95: Sometimes a new man is anxious to proceed at once.
• Pg.121: That is why we are anxious that you understand, and that you avoid these unnecessary difficulties.
• Pg.163: The doctor proved to be able and exceedingly anxious to adopt any workable method of handling the situation.

• Pg.58: 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.
• Pg.76: Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.
• Pg.79: Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find a spiritual experience, we ask that we be given strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be.

• Pg.xiv: We are not allied with any particular faith, sect or denomination, nor do we oppose anyone.
• Pg.18: It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents - anyone can increase the list.
• Pg.19: This should suggest a useful program for anyone concerned with a drinking problem.
• Pg.28: We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired.
• Pg.31: If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him.
• Pg.34: If anyone questions whether he has entered this dangerous area, let him try leaving liquor alone for one year.
• Pg.68: We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator.
• Pg.69: We do not want to be the arbiter of anyone's sex conduct.
• Pg.83: We must remember that ten or twenty years of drunkenness would make a skeptic out of anyone.
• Pg.83: As God's people we stand on our feet; we don't crawl before anyone.
• Pg.84: We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone.
• Pg.84: And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol.
• Pg.98: Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone.
• Pg.99: These things will come to pass naturally and in good time provided, however, the alcoholic continues to demonstrate that he can be sober, considerate, and helpful, regardless of what anyone says or does.
• Pg.102: But some of us think we should not serve liquor to anyone.
• Pg.103: Experience shows that such an attitude is not helpful to anyone.
• Pg.112: Do not ask that he do it for you or anyone else.
• Pg.135: Though he is now a most effective member of Alcoholics Anonymous, he still smokes and drinks coffee, but neither his wife nor anyone else stands in judgment.
• Pg.135: You cannot see why it should be to anyone else, save the spineless and stupid.
• Pg.160: (pg.159) In addition to these casual get-togethers, it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be attended (pg.160) by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life.

• Pg.xxiv: You may rely absolutely on anything they say about themselves.
• Pg.14: "...Anything is better than the way you were."
• Pg.28: If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.
• Pg.34: We think few, to whom this book will appeal, can stay dry anything like a year.
• Pg.37: How can such a lack of proportion, of the ability to think straight, be called anything else?
• Pg.46: How could a Supreme Being have anything to do with it all?
• Pg.56: "If there is a God, He certainly hasn't done anything for me!"
• Pg.60: No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles.
• Pg.64: It (resentments) destroys more alcoholics than anything else.
• Pg.74: It may be one of our own family, but we cannot disclose anything to our wives or our parents which will hurt them and make them unhappy.
• Pg.75: Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a free man at last.
• Pg.79: We must not shrink at anything.
• Pg.80: How could she be anything else?
• Pg.82: To his wife, he remarked, "Don't see anything the matter here, Ma. Ain't it grand the wind stopped blowin'?"
• Pg.84: And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol.
• Pg.90: Neither should the family hysterically plead with him to do anything, nor should they tell him much about you.
• Pg.93: In that case he is going to wonder how you can add anything to what he already knows.
• Pg.95: ell him that if he wants to get well you will do anything to help.
• Pg.100: When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned.
• Pg.103: We would not even do the cause of temperate drinking any good, for not one drinker in a thousand likes to be told anything about alcohol by one who hates it.
• Pg.103: Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything.
• Pg.111: If he gets the idea that you are a nag or killjoy, your chance of accomplishing anything useful may be zero.
• Pg.115: He may be anything but that.
• Pg.127: Since the home has suffered more than anything else, it is well that a man exert himself there.
• Pg.128: He is unable to focus on anything else.
• Pg.129: During those first days of convalescence, this will do more to insure his sobriety than anything else.
• Pg.130: He will be less likely to drink again, and anything is preferable to that.
• Pg.142: Will he take every necessary step, submit to anything to get well, to stop drinking forever?
• Pg.145: (pg.144) If he feels free to discuss his problems with you, if he knows you understand (pg.145) and will not be upset by anything he wishes to say, he will probably be off to a fast start.
• Pg.145: In fact, he may say almost anything if he has accepted our solution which, as you know, demands rigorous honesty.
• Pg.152: Inwardly he would give anything to take half a dozen drinks and get away with them.
• Pg.155: He would do anything, he said, but that.
• Pg.158: "Maybe you're right," he said. "God ought to be able to do anything."
• Pg.158: On the third day the lawyer gave his life to the care and direction of his Creator, and said he was perfectly willing to do anything necessary.
• Pg.158: They were deeply religious people, much shocked by their son's refusal to have anything to do with the (pg.159) church.

• Pg.26: He can go anywhere on this earth where other free men may go (pg.27) without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude.
• Pg.102: Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful.
• Pg.147: If he is conscientiously following the program of recovery he can go anywhere your business may call him.

• Pg.xxviii: This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity.
• Pg.43: As to two of you men, whose stories I have heard, there is no doubt in my mind that you were 100% hopeless, apart from divine help.
• Pg.99: Sometimes it is to the best interest of all concerned that a couple remain apart.
• Pg.159: In addition to these casual get-togethers, it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be attended (pg.160) by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life.

• Pg.127: If they sense these things, they will not take so seriously his periods of crankiness, depression, or apathy, which will disappear when there is tolerance, love, and spiritual understanding.

• Pg.68: We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator.
• Pg.68: We never apologize for God.
• Pg.86: Do we owe an apology?
• Pg.115: You will no longer be self-conscious or feel that you must apologize as though your husband were a weak character.

• Pg.xiii: It is important that we remain anonymous because we are too few, at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication.
• Pg.xxvi: Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices.
• Pg.xxvii: Men have cried out to me in sincere and despairing appeal: "Doctor, I cannot go on like this!
• Pg.34: We think few, to whom this book will appeal, can stay dry anything like a year.

• Pg.39: To all appearance he is a stable, well balanced individual.
• Pg.48: It is being constantly revealed, as mankind studies the material world, that outward appearances are not inward reality at all.

• Pg.xxiii: This man and over one hundred others appear to have recovered.
• Pg.xxiii: These facts appear to be of extreme medical importance; because of the extraordinary possibilities of rapid (pg.xxiv) growth inherent in this group they may mark a new epoch in the annals of alcoholism.
• Pg.xxvi: If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement.
• Pg.9: In a matter of fact way he told how two men had appeared in court, persuading the judge to suspend his commitment.
• Pg.22: Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.
• Pg.27: They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements.
• Pg.28: In the following chapter, there appears an explanation of alcoholism, as we understand it, then a chapter addressed to the agnostic.
• Pg.30: Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of (pg.31) our kind like other men.
• Pg.105: We seldom had friends at our homes, never knowing how or when the men of the house would appear.

• Pg.1: Here was love, applause, war; moments sublime with intervals hilarious.
• Pg.3: For the next few years fortune threw money and applause my way.
• Pg.3: We went at once to the country, my wife to applaud while I started out to overtake Walter Hagen.

• Pg.xxv: 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.
• Pg.xxv: 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.
• Pg.xxv: Many years ago one of the leading contributors to this book came under our care in this hospital and while here he acquired some ideas which he put into practical application at once.
• Pg.38: Some of you are thinking: "Yes, what you tell us is true, but it doesn't fully apply.
• Pg.47: This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book.
• Pg.52: We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems this same readiness to change our? point of view.
• Pg.93: Admit that he probably knows more about it than you do, but call to his attention the fact that however deep his faith and knowledge, he could not have applied it or he would not drink.
• Pg.104: But what we have said applies quite as much to women.
• Pg.104: What they say will apply to nearly everyone bound by ties of blood or affection to an alcoholic.
• Pg.112: The same principles which apply to husband number one should be practiced.
• Pg.115: The same principle applies in dealing with the children.
• Pg.116: As our husbands began to apply spiritual principles in their lives, we began to see the desirability of doing so too.

• Pg.3: (pg.2) We gave up our positions and off we roared on a motorcycle, the sidecar stuffed with tent, blankets, a change of clothes, and three huge volumes of a financial (pg.3) reference service. Our friends thought a lunacy commission should be appointed.
• Pg.74: Those of us belonging to a religious denomination which requires confession must, and of course, will want to go to the properly appointed authority whose duty it is to receive it.

• Pg.xxviii: (pg.xxvii) They took a drink a day or so prior to the date, and then the phenomenon of craving at once became paramount to all other interests so that the (pg.xxviii) important appointment was not met.
• Pg.120: The slightest disposition on your part to guide his appointments or his affairs so he will not be tempted will be noticed.

• Pg.72: In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient.
• Pg.76: We subjected ourselves to a drastic self-appraisal.
• Pg.82: No outsider can appraise such an intimate situation.
• Pg.94: Outline the program of action, explaining how you made a self-appraisal, how you straightened out your past and why you are now endeavoring to be helpful to him.

• Pg.40: I rather appreciated your ideas about the subtle insanity which precedes the first drink, but I was confident it could not happen to me after what I had learned.
• Pg.111: Your husband may come to appreciate your reasonableness and patience.
• Pg.129: If the family will appreciate that dad's current behavior is but a phase of his development, all will be well.
• Pg.140: Can it be appreciated that he has been a victim of crooked thinking, directly caused by the action of alcohol on his brain?
• Pg.141: You might say you appreciate his abilities, would like to keep him, but cannot if he continues to (pg.142) drink
• Pg.146: He will appreciate knowing you are not bothering your head about him, (pg.147) that you are not suspicious nor are you trying to run his life so he will be shielded from temptation to drink.

• Pg.1: I fancied myself a leader, for had not the men of my battery given me a special token of appreciation?

• Pg.102: If you answer these questions satisfactorily, you need have no apprehension.
• Pg.128: As soon as his sobriety begins to be taken as a matter of course, the family may look at their strange new dad with apprehension, then with irritation.

• Pg.xxiv: More often than not, it is imperative that a man's brain be cleared before he is approached, as he has then a better (pg.xxv) chance of understanding and accepting what we have to offer.
• Pg.xxv: 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.
• Pg.xxvii: Many types do not respond to the ordinary psychological approach.
• Pg.13: I expressed my entire willingness to approach these individuals, admitting my wrong.
• Pg.18: That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer,...
• Pg.19: After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again.
• Pg.25: When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet.
• Pg.43: Though not a religious person, I have profound respect for the spiritual approach in such cases as yours.
• Pg.46: Our own conception, however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach and to effect a contact with Him
• Pg.47: When people presented us with spiritual approaches, how frequently did we all say, "I wish I had what that man has. ..."
• Pg.50: In our personal stories you will find a? wide variation in the way each teller approaches and conceives of the Power which is greater than himself.
• Pg.50: Whether we agree with a particular approach or conception seems to make little difference.
• Pg.53: We agnostically inclined would not feel satisfied with a proposal which does not lend itself to reasonable approach and interpretation.
• Pg.56: One night, when confined in a hospital, he was approached by an alcoholic who had known a spiritual experience.
• Pg.75: Most people approached in this way will be glad to help; they will be honored by our confidence.
• Pg.76: To some people we need not, and probably should not emphasize the spiritual feature on our first approach.
• Pg.77: It is seldom wise to approach an individual, who still smarts from our injustice to him, and announce that we have gone religious.
• Pg.77: The question of how to approach the man we hated will arise.
• Pg.78: Approached in this way, the most ruthless creditor will sometimes surprise us.
• Pg.90: You need this information to put yourself in his place, to see how you would like him to approach you if the tables were turned.
• Pg.91: Approach through a doctor or an institution is a better bet.
• Pg.95: If he thinks he can do the job in some other way, or prefers some other spiritual approach, encourage him to follow his own conscience.
• Pg.95: We have no monopoly on God; we merely have an approach that worked with us.
• Pg.112: If this kind of approach does not catch your husband's interest, it may be best to drop the subject, but after a friendly talk your husband will usually revive the topic himself.
• Pg.141: Suppose an approach is made something like this: State that you know about his drinking, and that it must stop.
• Pg.144: Perhaps you are not quite in sympathy with the approach we suggest.
• Pg.148: We think this method of approach will accomplish several things.
• Pg.148: The other day an approach was made to the vice president of a large industrial concern.
• Pg.153: They will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who must find a way out.
• Pg.153: In the chapter "Working With Others" you gathered an idea of how we approach and aid others to health.
• Pg.160: Many a distracted wife has visited this house to find loving and understanding companionship among women who knew her problem, to hear from the lips of their husbands what had happened to them, to be advised how her own wayward mate might be hospitalized and approached when next he stumbled
• Pg.160: The very practical approach to his problems, the absence of intolerance of any kind, the informality, the genuine democracy, the uncanny understanding which these people had were irresistible.
• Pg.162: Every few days this doctor suggests our approach to one of his patients.
• Pg.163: Some of them may sink and perhaps never get up, but if our experience is a criterion, more than half of those approached will become fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.

• Pg.74: It is important that he be able to keep a confidence; that he fully understand and approve what we are driving at; (pg.75) that he will not try to change our plan.
• Pg.80: His action met wide-spread approval, and today he is one of the most trusted citizens of his town.
• Pg.125: Another principle we observe carefully is that we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve.
• Pg.130: They can hardly fail to approve these simple principles, though the head of the house still fails somewhat in practicing them.
• Pg.151: Some of us sought out sordid places, hoping to find understanding companionship and approval.

• Pg.147: After reading this book, a junior executive can go to such a man and say approximately this, "Look here, Ed. Do you want to stop drinking or not? ..."

• Pg.135: We have three little mottoes which are apropos.

• Pg.21: He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him.

• Pg.69: We do not want to be the arbiter of anyone's sex conduct.

• Pg.19: Nothing would please us so much as to write a book which would contain no basis for contention or argument.
• Pg.49: We read wordy books and indulge in windy arguments, thinking we believe this universe needs no God to explain it.
• Pg.67: We avoid retaliation or argument.
• Pg.77: Under no condition do we criticize such a person or argue.
• Pg.98: Argument and fault-finding are to be avoided like the plague.
• Pg.102: We never argue this question.
• Pg.115: Unless they actually need protection from their father, it is best not to take sides in any argument he has with them while drinking.
• Pg.126: It is of little use to argue and only (pg.127) makes the impasse worse.
• Pg.127: These family talks will be constructive if they can be carried on without heated argument, self-pity, self-justification or resentful criticism.
• Pg.129: Dad may feel that for years his drinking has placed him on the wrong side of every argument, but that now he has become a superior person with God on his side.
• Pg.132: If he does not argue about religion, he will make new friends and is sure to find new avenues of usefulness and pleasure.
• Pg.155: Why, he argued, should he lose the remainder of his business, only to bring still more suffering to his family by foolishly admitting his plight to people from whom he made his livelihood?

• Pg.8: Then came the insidious insanity of that first drink, and on Armistice Day 1934, I was off again.

• Pg.12: The word God still aroused a certain antipathy.
• Pg.69: Did we unjustifiably arouse jealousy, suspicion or bitterness?
• Pg.89: You will be handicapped if you arouse it.
• Pg.93: There is no use arousing any prejudice he may have against certain theological terms and conceptions about which he may already be confused.
• Pg.100: You should warn against arousing resentment or jealousy.
• Pg.113: They can urge action without arousing hostility.
• Pg.146: Long experience with alcoholic excuses naturally arouses suspicion.

• Pg.60: Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way.
• Pg.78: Arranging the best deal we can we let these people know we are sorry.
• Pg.88: We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.
• Pg.120: We never, never try to arrange a man's life so as to shield him from temptation.
• Pg.122: s not each trying to arrange the family show to his liking?

• Pg.61: (pg.60) If (pg.61) his arrangements would only stay put, if only people would do as he wished, the show would be great.
• Pg.61: In trying to make these arrangements our actor may sometimes be quite virtuous.
• Pg.163: Arrangements were also made with the chief psychiatrist of a large public hospital to select still others from the stream of misery which flows through that institution.

• Pg.155: It was the usual situation: home in jeopardy, wife ill, children distracted, bills in arrears and standing damaged.

• Pg.79: She is indignant about it, and has a warrant out for our arrest.
• Pg.79: She went to court and got an order for his arrest.

• Pg.39: It was his first experience of this kind, and he was much ashamed of it.

• Pg.xiii: Very earnestly we ask the press also, to observe this request, for otherwise we shall be greatly handicapped.
• Pg.xxv: There was, therefore, a sense of real satisfaction when I was asked to contribute a few words on a subject which is covered in such masterly detail in these pages.
• Pg.5: In no time I was beating on the bar asking myself how it happened.
• Pg.8: The cheery voice of an old school friend asked if he might (pg.9) come over.
• Pg.13: I was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me.
• Pg.14: For a moment I was alarmed, and called my friend, the doctor, to ask if I were still sane.
• Pg.20: You may already have asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking.
• Pg.51: If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking -"What do I have to do?"
• Pg.23: If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis.
• Pg.26: So he returned to this doctor, whom he admired, and asked him point-blank why he could not recover.
• Pg.36: We asked him to tell us exactly how it happened.
• Pg.37: Next day we would ask ourselves, in all earnestness and sincerity, how it could have happened.
• Pg.42: They grinned, which I didn't like so much, and then asked me if I thought myself alcoholic and if I were really licked this time.
• Pg.47: Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you.
• Pg.47: We needed to ask ourselves but one short question.
• Pg.48: The reader may still ask why he should believe in a Power greater than himself.
• Pg.51: We asked ourselves this: Are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material?
• Pg.52: We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems this same readiness to change our point of view.
• Pg.56: But later, alone in his room, he asked himself this question: "Is it possible that all the religious people I have known are wrong?"
• Pg.59: We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
• Pg.59: 7.) Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
• Pg.64: We asked ourselves why we were angry.
• Pg.67: We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend.
• Pg.68: We asked ourselves why we had them. (resentments)
• Pg.68: We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be.
• Pg.69: We asked God to mold our ideals and help us to live up to them.
• Pg.69: In meditation, we ask God what we should do about each specific matter.
• Pg.75: Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a free man at last.
• Pg.76: If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.
• Pg.76: If we haven't the will to do this, we ask until it comes.
• Pg.79: Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find a spiritual experience, we ask that we be given strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be.
• Pg.79: We suggested he write his first wife admitting his faults and asking forgiveness.
• Pg.80: If we have obtained permission, have consulted with others, asked God to help and the drastic step is indicated we must not shrink.
• Pg.83: So we clean house with the family, asking each morning in meditation that our Creator show us the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love.
• Pg.84: When these (selfish, dishonest, afraid) crop up, we ask God at once to remove them.
• Pg.86: After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.
• Pg.86: Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.
• Pg.86: Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision.
• Pg.87: We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only.
• Pg.87: We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped.
• Pg.87: If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation.
• Pg.87: As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.
• Pg.89: You can easily find some by asking a few doctors, ministers, priests or hospitals.
• Pg.90: Then let his family or a friend ask him if he wants to quit for good and if he would go to any extreme to do so.
• Pg.93: Let him ask you that question, if he will.
• Pg.100: If he is sincerely interested and wants to see you again, ask him to read this book in the interval.
• Pg.100: Ask them to remember, when they are impatient, the blessed fact of his sobriety.
• Pg.101: Ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory he would escape the alcohol problem.
• Pg.101: Therefore, ask yourself on each occasion, "Have I any good social, business, or personal reason for going to this place?
• Pg.102: If you do this thoroughly, few people will ask you to drink.
• Pg.106: We began to ask medical advice as the sprees got closer together.
• Pg.107: Asked why they commenced to drink again, they would reply with some silly excuse, or none.
• Pg.112: But after his next binge, ask him if he would really like to get over drinking for good.
• Pg.112: Do not ask that he do it for you or anyone else.
• Pg.112: If you think he will be shy of a spiritual remedy, ask him to look at the chapter on (pg.113) alcoholism.
• Pg.116: Ask him what you should do if he places you in such a position again.
• Pg.120: Cheer him up and ask him how you can be still more helpful.
• Pg.127: Little by little, mother and children will see they ask too much, and father will see he gives too (pg.128) little.
• Pg.142: You ask, because many alcoholics, being warped and drugged, do not want to quit.
• Pg.144: Ask him if he thinks he has the answer.
• Pg.152: "How is that to come about?" you ask.
• Pg.164: Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.

• Pg.46: We looked askance at many individuals who claimed to be godly.

• Pg.23: How true this is, few realize. In a vague way their families and friends sense that these drinkers are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse himself from his lethargy and assert his power of will.
• Pg.130: Even when he wanted to assert himself (pg.131) he could not, for his drinking placed him constantly in the wrong.
• Pg.131: Father, coming suddenly to life again, often begins to assert himself.

• Pg.124: We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and convert them into assets.
• Pg.124: The alcoholic's past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is almost the only one!

• Pg.78: Occasionally, they will offer assistance.
• Pg.89: They will be only too glad to assist you.
• Pg.96: If he is, you might try to help him about getting a job, or give him a little financial assistance.
• Pg.98: The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon our assistance rather than upon God.
• Pg.136: I was at one time assistant manager of a corporation department employing sixty-six hundred men.

• Pg.15: It was fortunate, for my old business associates remained skeptical for a year and a half, during which I found little work.
• Pg.145: Can he talk frankly with you so long as he does not bear business tales or criticize his associates?

• Pg.28: This should be an entirely personal affair which each one decides for himself in the light of past associations, or his present choice.

• Pg.3: My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all day and almost every night.
• Pg.34: We are assuming, of course, that the reader desires to stop.
• Pg.47: That was great news to us, for we had assumed we could not make use of spiritual principles unless we accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to believe.
• Pg.97: Never avoid these responsibilities, but be sure you are doing the right thing if you assume them.
• Pg.100: Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do.
• Pg.128: Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience.

• Pg.48: Simply because it is impossible to explain what we see, feel, direct, and use, without a reasonable assumption as a starting point.
• Pg.48: Everybody nowadays, believes in scores of assumptions for which there is good evidence, but no perfect visual proof.
• Pg.49: When, however, the perfectly logical assumption is suggested that underneath the material world and life as we see it, there is an All Powerful, Guiding, Creative Intelligence, right there our perverse streak comes to the surface and we laboriously set out to convince ourselves it isn't so.

• Pg.xxix: Following his physical rehabilitation, he had a talk with me in which he frankly stated he thought the treatment a waste of effort, unless I could assure him, which no one ever had, that in the future he would have the "will power" to resist the impulse to drink.
• Pg.1: My talent for leadership, I imagined, would place me at the head of vast enterprises which I would manage with the utmost assurance.
• Pg.47: As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way.
• Pg.86: Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use.
• Pg.142: Next he can be assured that you do not intend to lecture, moralize, or condemn; that if this was done formerly, it was because of misunderstanding.

• Pg.xxvi: These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
• Pg.30: The persistence of this illusion is astonishing.

• Pg.xviii: New groups started up and it was found, to the astonishment of everyone, that A.A.’s message could be transmitted in the mail as well as by word of mouth.

• Pg.7: She would soon have to give me over to the undertaker or the asylum.
• Pg.15: I have seen men come out of asylums and resume a vital place in the lives of their families and communities.
• Pg.31: Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, ... accepting voluntary commitment to asylums - we could increase the list ad infinitum.
• Pg.35: On leaving the asylum he came into contact with us.
• Pg.35: He knew he faced another trip to the asylum if he kept on.
• Pg.36: Thus started one more journey to the asylum for Jim.
• Pg.38: He shuts himself up in an asylum, hoping to mend his ways.
• Pg.97: It may mean sharing your money and your home, counseling frantic wives and relatives, innumerable trips to police courts, sanitariums, hospitals, jails and asylum.
• Pg.114: Since this book was first published, A.A. has released thousands of alcoholics from asylums and hospitals of every kind.

• Pg.10: I was not an atheist.
• Pg.44: To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.
• Pg.44: But cheer up, something like half? of us thought we were atheist or agnostics.
• Pg.49: Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheist chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.
• Pg.52: We agnostics and atheists were sticking to the idea that self-sufficiency would solve our problems.
• Pg.55: In this book you will read the experience of a man who thought he was an atheist.
• Pg.93: If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God.

• Pg.137: Because of the employee's special ability, or of his own strong personal attachment to him, the employer has sometimes kept such a man at work long beyond a reasonable period.

• Pg.30: Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people.
• Pg.32: Then, gathering all his forces, he attempted to stop altogether and found he could not.
• Pg.33: Every attempt failed.
• Pg.64: (pg.63) Next we launched out on a course of vigorous action, the first step of which is a personal housecleaning, (pg.64) which many of us had never attempted.
• Pg.76: We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves.
• Pg.94: It is important for him to realize that your attempt to pass this on to him plays a vital part in your own recovery.
• Pg.101: These attempts to do the impossible have always failed.
• Pg.111: Attempt instead, to put yourself in his place.
• Pg.125: He may either plunge into a frantic attempt to get on his feet in business, or (pg.126) he may be so enthralled by his new life that he talks or thinks of little else.
• Pg.141: Seeing your attempt to understand and help, some men will try to take advantage of your kindness.
• Pg.151: There was always one more attempt - and one more failure.

• Pg.xxiii: In late 1934 I attended a patient who, though he had been a competent businessman of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless.
• Pg.22: 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?
• Pg.56: He attended church school, where he became rebellious at what he thought an overdose of religious education.
• Pg.80: He attended church for the first time in many years.
• Pg.87: If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also.
• Pg.102: If it is a happy occasion, try to increase the pleasure of those there; if a business occasion, go and attend to your business enthusiastically.
• Pg.144: We suggest you draw the book to the attention of the doctor who is to attend your patient during treatment.
• Pg.159: In addition to these casual get-togethers, it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be attended (pg.160) by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life.
• Pg.161: But life among Alcoholics Anonymous is more than attending gatherings and visiting hospitals.
• Pg.162: We are greatly indebted to the doctor in attendance there, for he, although it might prejudice his own work, has told us of? his belief in ours.
• Pg.163: And with such good effect that the doctor agreed to a test among his patients and certain other alcoholics from a clinic which he attends.

• Pg.1: My attention was caught by a doggerel on an old tombstone: Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier ...
• Pg.21: If a sufficiently strong reason - ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor - becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
• Pg.23: If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.
• Pg.65: The Cause His attention to my wife.
• Pg.68: We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be.
• Pg.90: If he says yes, then his attention should be drawn to you as a person who has recovered.
• Pg.92: Keep his attention focused mainly on your personal experience.
• Pg.93: Admit that he probably knows more about it than you do, but call to his attention the fact that however deep his faith and knowledge, he could not have applied it or he would not drink.
• Pg.107: And just as we were being convinced of their heartlessness, they would surprise us with fresh resolves and new attentions.
• Pg.119: Still another difficulty is that you may become jealous of the attention he bestows on other people, especially alcoholics.
• Pg.119: It will do little good if you point that out and urge more attention for yourself.
• Pg.131: The problems of the community might engage attention.
• Pg.143: Though you are providing him with the best possible medical attention, he should understand that he must undergo a change of heart.
• Pg.144: We suggest you draw the book to the attention of the doctor who is to attend your patient during treatment.
• Pg.149: It is not to be expected that an alcoholic employee will receive a disproportionate amount of time and attention.

• Pg.18: That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured - these are the conditions (pg.19) we have found most effective.
• Pg.19: Most of us sense that real tolerance of other people's shortcomings and viewpoints and a respect for their opinions are attitudes which make us (pg.20) more useful to others.
• Pg.25: The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe.
• Pg.27: (pg.26) He can go anywhere on this earth where other free men may go (pg.27) without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude.
• Pg.27: Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.
• Pg.50: They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking.
• Pg.55: With this attitude you cannot fail.
• Pg.72: We have been trying to get a new attitude, a new relationship with our Creator, and to discover the obstacles in our path.
• Pg.77: It may be he has done us more harm than we have done him and, though we may have acquired a better attitude toward him, we are still not too keen about admitting our faults.
• Pg.84: Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
• Pg.85: We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part.
• Pg.86: It works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it.
• Pg.99: This means a new attitude and spirit all around.
• Pg.103: Experience shows that such an attitude is not helpful to anyone.
• Pg.103: Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility.
• Pg.117: We urge you to try our program, for nothing will be so helpful to your husband as the radically changed attitude toward him which God will show you how to have.
• Pg.122: Our women folk have suggested certain attitude a wife may take with the husband who is recovering.
• Pg.122: The alcoholic, his wife, his children, his "in-laws," each one is likely to have fixed ideas about the family's attitude towards himself or herself.
• Pg.142: A firm attitude at this point has helped many of us.
• Pg.143: To get over drinking will require a transformation of thought and attitude.
• Pg.143: While on the subject of confidence, can you adopt the attitude that so far as you are concerned this will be a strictly personal matter, that his alcoholic derelictions, the treatment about to be undertaken, will never be discussed without his consent?
• Pg.144: You are betting, of course, that your changed attitude plus the contents of this book will turn the trick.
• Pg.145: With this kind of employee such an attitude will command undying loyalty.
• Pg.149: Perhaps this is a typical attitude.
• Pg.150: They have a new attitude, and they have been saved from a living death.

• Pg.xix: Our public relations were to be based upon attraction rather than promotion.
• Pg.39: He has so attractive a personality that he makes friends with everyone.
• Pg.154: Down the lobby a door opened into an attractive bar.
• Pg.161: Alcoholics are being attracted from far and near.

• Pg.53: That is one of man's magnificent attributes.

• Pg.161: Being wrecked in the same vessel, being restored and united under one God, with hearts and minds attuned to the welfare of others, the things which matter so much to some people no longer signify much to them.

• Pg.74: Those of us belonging to a religious denomination which requires confession must, and of course, will want to go to the properly appointed authority whose duty it is to receive it.
• Pg.78: Perhaps we have committed a criminal offense which might land us in jail if it were known to the authorities.
• Pg.163: The authorities were much concerned.

• Pg.85: (pg.84) We (pg.85) react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically.

• Pg.xix: He inherited a lucrative automobile agency.

• Pg.35: It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from our Society; that our leaders might serve but never govern; that each group was to be autonomous and there was to be no professional class of therapy.

• Pg.24: At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail.
• Pg.59: Half measures availed us nothing.

• Pg.74: Notwithstanding the great necessity for discussing ourselves with someone, it may be one is so situated that there is no suitable person available.
• Pg.96: Let him know you are available if he wishes to make a decision and tell his story, but do not insist upon it if he prefers to consult someone else.
• Pg.134: (pg.133) He thought all alcoholics (pg.134) should constantly have chocolate available for its quick energy value at times of fatigue.

• Pg.xxvi: We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
• Pg.17: We are average Americans.
• Pg.43: One of these men, staff member of a world-renowned hospital, recently made this statement to some of us: "What you say about the general hopelessness of the average alcoholic's plight is, in my opinion, correct.
• Pg.58: Their chances are less than average.
• Pg.129: He will perceive that his spiritual growth is lopsided, that for an average man like himself, a spiritual life which does not include his family obligations may not be so perfect after all.

• Pg.124: With it you can avert death and misery for them.

• Pg.xiii: We would like it understood that our alcoholic work is an avocation.

• Pg.3: I had had some success at speculation, so we had a little money, but we once worked on a farm for a month to avoid drawing on our small capital.
• Pg.43: Had you offered yourselves as patients at this hospital, I would not have taken you, if I had been able to avoid it.
• Pg.44: At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics.
• Pg.67: We avoid retaliation or argument.
• Pg.70: We avoid hysterical thinking or advice.
• Pg.72: Trying to avoid this humbling experience, they have turned to easier methods.
• Pg.83: But we don't delay if it can be avoided.
• Pg.85: We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation.
• Pg.91: When possible, avoid meeting a man through his family.
• Pg.97: Never avoid these responsibilities, but be sure you are doing the right thing if you assume them.
• Pg.98: Argument and fault-finding are to be avoided like the plague.
• Pg.101: (pg.100) People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we (pg.101) must not have it in our homes;...; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; ...; we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all.
• Pg.101: So our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason for being there.
• Pg.113: Avoid urging him to follow our program.
• Pg.114: You avoid the subject of drinking, (pg.115) even with your own parents.
• Pg.115: Avoid answering these inquiries as much as you can.
• Pg.117: Often you must carry the burden of avoiding them or keeping them under control.
• Pg.118: If your husband is trying to live on a spiritual basis, he will also be doing everything in his power to avoid disagreement or contention.
• Pg.121: That is why we are anxious that you understand, and that you avoid these unnecessary difficulties.
• Pg.123: Suppose we tell you some of the obstacles a family will meet; suppose we suggest how they may be avoided - even converted to good use for others.
• Pg.126: This sort of thing can be avoided.
• Pg.133: Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.
• Pg.162: This practice enables us to lend a hand, at the same time avoiding certain alluring distractions of the road, about which any traveling man can inform you.

• Pg.60: 12.) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
• Pg.86: On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead.
• Pg.119: Both of you will awaken to a new (pg.120) sense of responsibility for others.
• Pg.151: Momentarily we did - then would come oblivion and the awful awakening to face the hideous Four Horsemen - Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, Despair.
• Spiritual Experience: The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.

• Pg.19: We are aware that these matters are, from their very nature, controversial.
• Pg.109: He is worried at times, and is becoming aware that he cannot drink like other people.
• Pg.155: Painfully aware of being somehow abnormal, the man did not fully realize what it meant to be alcoholic.

• Pg.4: It was fun to carom around the exclusive course which had inspired such awe in me as a lad.
• Pg.46: There was a feeling of awe and wonder, but it was fleeting and soon lost.

B

• Pg.29: We hope no one will consider these self-revealing accounts in bad taste.
• Pg.32: It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition.
• Pg.33: Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever.
• Pg.39: We first saw Fred about a year ago in a hospital where he had gone to recover from a bad case of jitters.
• Pg.43: My old manner of life was by no means a bad one, but I would not exchange its best moments for the worst I have now.
• Pg.76: When ready, we say something like this: "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad.
• Pg.108: We realize some men are thoroughly bad-intentioned, that no amount of patience will make any difference.
• Pg.115: When your husband is bad, you become a trembling recluse, wishing the telephone had never been invented.
• Pg.120: Though it is infinitely better that he have no relapse at all, as has been true with many of our men, it is by no means a bad thing in some cases.
• Pg.132: Everybody knows that those in bad health, and those who seldom play, do not laugh much.
• Pg.140: But these scrapes can generally be charged, no matter how bad, to the abnormal action of alcohol on his mind.
• Pg.145: Can you charge this off as you would a bad account and start fresh with him?
• Pg.153: How can they rise out of such misery, bad repute and hopelessness?

• Pg.20: He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair (pg.21) him physically and mentally.
• Pg.43: Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems.
• Pg.133: Now about health: A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight nor do twisted thinking and depression vanish in a twinkling.
• Pg.153: From a business standpoint, his trip came off badly.

• Pg.23: Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot.
• Pg.26: More baffling still, he could give himself no satisfactory explanation for his fall.
• Pg.34: This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it - this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.
• Pg.51: (pg.50) Once confused (pg.51) and baffled by the seeming futility of existence, they show the underlying reasons why they were making heavy going of life.
• Pg.58: Remember that we deal with alcohol-cunning, baffling, (pg.59) powerful!
• Pg.84: We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
• Pg.92: Tell him how baffled you were, how you finally learned that you were sick.
• Pg.107: It was so baffling, so heartbreaking.

• Pg.11: I honestly doubted whether, on balance, the religions of mankind had done any good.
• Pg.21: He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish.
• Pg.26: He seemed quite rational and well-balanced with respect to other problems.
• Pg.39: To all appearance he is a stable, well balanced individual.
• Pg.131: Father will necessarily spend much time with other alcoholics, but this activity should be balanced.

• Pg.58: At some of these we balked.

• Pg.128: They suspect father is a bit balmy!

• Pg.34: The local banker watched me whirl fat checks in and out of his till with amused skepticism.
• Pg.95: If he is not interested in your solution, if he expects you to act only as a banker for his financial difficulties or a nurse for his sprees, you may have to drop him until he changes his mind.
• Pg.138: Here, for instance, is a typical example: An officer of one of the largest banking institutions in America knows I no longer drink.
• Pg.138: One day he told me about an executive of the same bank who, from his description, was undoubtedly alcoholic.
• Pg.138: I felt this was inevitable and wondered if the bank was doing the man an injustice.
• Pg.138: I wanted to throw up my hands in discouragement, for I saw that I had failed to help my banker friend understand.

• Pg.35: Friends who have reasoned with him after a spree which has brought him to the point of divorce or bankruptcy are mystified when he walks directly into a saloon.

• Pg.4: After one of those days of inferno, I wobbled from a hotel bar to a brokerage office.
• Pg.4: I went back to the bar.
• Pg.5: Sometimes a small deal would net a few hundred dollars, and I would pay my bills at the bars and delicatessens.
• Pg.6: In no time I was beating on the bar asking myself how it happened.
• Pg.24: How often have some of us begun to drink in this nonchalant way, and after the third or fourth, pounded on the bar and said to ourselves, "For God's sake, how did I ever get started again?"
• Pg.36: On the way I felt hungry so I stopped at a roadside place where they have a bar.
• Pg.36:
• Pg.41: When I returned to the hotel it struck me a highball would be fine before going to bed, so I stepped into the bar and had one.
• Pg.101: (pg.100) People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we (pg.101) must not have it in our homes; ...; we must not go into bars; ...; we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all.
• Pg.101: That includes bars, nightclubs, dances, receptions, weddings, even plain ordinary whoopee parties.
• Pg.102: If you are with a person who wants to eat in a bar, by all means go along.
• Pg.154: Down the lobby a door opened into an attractive bar.
• Pg.154: Music and gay chatter still floated to him from the bar.
• Spiritual Experience: “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” -- Herbert Spencer

• Pg.31: Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking.

• Pg.56: The barriers he had built through the years were swept away.
• Pg.115: Barriers which have sprung up between you and your friends will disappear with the growth of sympathetic understanding.
• Pg.126: Beginning with such complaints, a barrier arises.

• Pg.68: One set of voices cry that sex is a lust of our lower nature, a base necessity of procreation.

• Pg.xix: Our public relations were to be based upon attraction rather than promotion.
• Pg.62: Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.
• Pg.121: But what we have related is based upon experience, some of it painful.
• Pg.124: (pg.123) The family may be possessed by the idea (pg.124) that future happiness can be based only upon forgetfulness of the past.

• Pg.xvii: Besides these, there were scattered alcoholics who had picked up the basic ideas in Akron or New York who were trying to form groups in other cities.
• Pg.52: We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn't control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn't make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn't seem to be of real help to other people - was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight?
• Pg.61: What is his basic trouble?

• Pg.62: So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making.

• Pg.xxiii: This has become the basis of a rapidly growing fellowship of these men and their families.
• Pg.19: Nothing would please us so much as to write a book which would contain no basis for contention or argument.
• Pg.34: Whether such a person can quit upon a nonspiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not.
• Pg.39: But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.
• Pg.44: To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.
• Pg.44: But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life - or else.
• Pg.50: Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation.
• Pg.60: On that basis we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good.
• Pg.68: For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God.
• Pg.76: As we look over the list of business acquaintances and friends we have hurt, we may feel diffident about going to some of them on a spiritual basis.
• Pg.80: He subsequently denied having received the money and used the incident as a basis for discrediting the man.
• Pg.99: The most incompatible people discover they have a basis upon which they can meet.
• Pg.99: If their old relationship is to be resumed it must be on a better basis, since the former did not work.
• Pg.118: If your husband is trying to live on a spiritual basis, he will also be doing everything in his power to avoid disagreement or contention.
• Pg.120: Perhaps your husband will make a fair start on the new basis, but just as things are going beautifully he dismays you by coming home drunk.
• Pg.127: As each member of a resentful family begins to see his shortcomings and admits them to the others, he lays a basis for helpful discussion.
• Pg.135: Whether the family goes on a spiritual basis or not, the alcoholic member has to if he would recover.
• Pg.146: Being on a radically different basis of life, he will never take advantage of the situation.
• Pg.155: A spiritual experience, he conceded, was absolutely necessary, but the price seemed high upon the basis suggested.
• Pg.162: Understanding our work, he can do this with an eye to selecting those who are willing and able to recover on a spiritual basis.

• Pg.6: The courage to do battle was not there.
• Pg.105: Our homes have been battle-grounds many an evening.

• Pg.6: In no time I was beating on the bar asking myself how it happened.
• Pg.23: 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.
• Pg.23: There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game.
• Pg.48: It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness.
• Pg.156: He's just beaten up a couple of nurses.

• Pg.50: We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees.
• Pg.120: Perhaps your husband will make a fair start on the new basis, but just as things are going beautifully he dismays you by coming home drunk.

• Pg.xvii: Their very first case, a desperate one, recovered immediately and became A.A. number three.
• Pg.xx: Another reason for the wide acceptance of A.A. was the ministration of friends—friends in medicine, religion, and the press, together with innumerable others who became our able and persistent advocates.
• Pg.xxvii: They took a drink a day or so prior to the date, and then the phenomenon of craving at once became paramount to all other interests so that the (pg.xxviii) important appointment was not met.
• Pg.2: My work took me about Wall Street and little by little I became interested in the market.
• Pg.2: Many people lost money - but some became very rich.
• Pg.3: The remonstrances of my friends terminated in a row and I became a lone wolf.
• Pg.5: I became an unwelcome hanger-on at brokerage places.
• Pg.5: Liquor ceased to be a luxury; it became a necessity.
• Pg.5: The house was taken over by the mortgage holder, my mother-in-law died, my wife and father-in-law became ill.
• Pg.8: Everyone became resigned to the certainty that I would have to be shut up somewhere, or would stumble along to a miserable end.
• Pg.10: I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory.
• Pg.13: I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch.
• Pg.20: You may already have asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking.
• Pg.35: In a few years he became so violent when intoxicated that he had to be committed.
• Pg.48: Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions.
• Pg.53: When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing.
• Pg.56: He attended church school, where he became rebellious at what he thought an overdose of religious education.
• Pg.59: 8.) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
• Pg.63: Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs.
• Pg.63: More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life.
• Pg.63: As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter.
• Pg.110: (pg.109) Though once like number two (pg.110) he became worse.
• Pg.130: Liquor incapacitated father for so many years that mother became head of the house.
• Pg.131: Thus mother, through no fault of her own, became accustomed to wearing the family trousers.
• Pg.137: What irony - I became an alcoholic myself!
• Pg.151: As we became subjects of King Alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down.
• Pg.159: Though they knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary.
• Pg.159: In addition to these casual get-togethers, it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be attended (pg.160) by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life.
• Pg.160: Outsiders became interested.

• Pg.xiii: It is important that we remain anonymous because we are too few, at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication.
• Pg.xxiii: These facts appear to be of extreme medical importance; because of the extraordinary possibilities of rapid (pg.xxiv) growth inherent in this group they may mark a new epoch in the annals of alcoholism.
• Pg.xxiv: It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives.
• Pg.xxvi: Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol.
• Pg.26: (pg.25) This (pg.26) we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort.
• Pg.32: We have heard of a few instances where people, who showed definite signs of alcoholism, were able to stop for a long period because of an overpowering desire to do so.
• Pg.33: We doubt if many of them can do it, because none will really want to stop, and hardly one of them, because of the peculiar mental twist already acquired, will find he can win out.
• Pg.39: That may be true of certain nonalcoholic people who, though drinking foolishly and heavily at the present time, are able to stop or moderate, because their brains and bodies have not been damaged as ours were.
• Pg.45: Perhaps we rejected this particular conception because it seemed inadequate.
• Pg.48: Simply because it is impossible to explain what we see, feel, direct, and use, without a reasonable assumption as a starting point.
• Pg.50: We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees.
• Pg.68: Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us?
• Pg.74: We say this because we are very anxious that we talk to the right person.
• Pg.79: Because of resentment and drinking, he had not paid alimony to his first wife.
• Pg.89: Ministers and doctors are competent and you can learn much from them if you wish, but it happens that because of your own drinking experience you can be uniquely useful to other alcoholics.
• Pg.92: But you may talk to him about the hopelessness of alcoholism because you offer a solution.
• Pg.102: Don't start to withdraw again just because your friends drink liquor.
• Pg.108: Of course, there is such a thing as incompatibility, but in nearly every instance the alcoholic only seems to be unloving and inconsiderate; it is usually because he is warped and sickened that he says and does these appalling things.
• Pg.122: Is it not because each wants to play the lead?
• Pg.137: Here were three exceptional men lost to this world because I did not understand alcoholism as I do now.
• Pg.137: Because of the employee's special ability, or of his own strong personal attachment to him, the employer has sometimes kept such a man at work long beyond a reasonable period.
• Pg.142: Next he can be assured that you do not intend to lecture, moralize, or condemn; that if this was done formerly, it was because of misunderstanding.
• Pg.142: You ask, because many alcoholics, being warped and drugged, do not want to quit.
• Pg.148: No man should be fired just because he is alcoholic.
• Pg.154: But what about his responsibilities - his family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah - yes, those other alcoholics?

• Pg.xxvi: If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement.
• Pg.xviii: The mushrooming process was in full swing. A.A. had become a national institution.
• Pg.xix: Though none of these principles had the force of rules or laws, they had become so widely accepted by 1950 that they were confirmed by our first International Conference held at Cleveland.
• Pg.xxiii: This has become the basis of a rapidly growing fellowship of these men and their families.
• Pg.xxvi: These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
• Pg.xxx: However, he did become "sold" on the ideas contained in this book.
• Pg.13: Common sense would thus become uncommon sense.
• Pg.21: If a sufficiently strong reason - ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor - becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
• Pg.21: Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social.
• Pg.22: What has become of the common sense and will power that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters?
• Pg.23: If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.
• Pg.24: Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent.
• >Pg.25: We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.
• Pg.59: In the early days of our drinking we occasionally remained sober for a year or more, becoming serious drinkers again later.
• Pg.59: 1.) We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
• Pg.61: He becomes, on the next occasion, still more demanding or gracious, as the case may be.
• Pg.61: He becomes angry, indignant, self-pitying.
• Pg.85: To some extent we have become God-conscious.
• Pg.87: What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.
• Pg.88: We become much more efficient.
• Pg.93: (pg.92) Even though your protégé may not have entirely (pg.93) admitted his condition, he has become very curious to know how you got well.
• Pg.96: If you leave such a person alone, he may soon become convinced that he cannot recover by himself.
• Pg.100: In this way you can set them on the right track without becoming critical of them.
• Pg.107: What had become of their judgment, their common sense, their will power?
• Pg.109: Of those who keep on, a good number will become true alcoholics after a while.
• Pg.109: He is worried at times, and is becoming aware that he cannot drink like other people.
• Pg.111: Even though your husband becomes unbearable and you have to leave him temporarily, you should, if you can, go without rancor.
• Pg.114: When they become too dangerous, we think the kind thing is to lock them up, but of course a good doctor should always be consulted.
• Pg.115: When your husband is bad, you become a trembling recluse, wishing the telephone had never been invented.
• Pg.119: till another difficulty is that you may become jealous of the attention he bestows on other people, especially alcoholics.
• Pg.119: Sometimes he will be so interested that he becomes really neglectful.
• Pg.122: We find the more one member of the family demands that the others concede to him, the more resentful they become.
• Pg.124: The alcoholic's past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is almost the only one!
• Pg.124: It is possible to dig up past misdeeds so they become a blight, a veritable plague.
• Pg.126: He becomes still less communicative.
• Pg.128: Giving, rather than getting, will become the guiding principle.
• Pg.128: He becomes a religious enthusiast.
• Pg.129: Dad may feel that for years his drinking has placed him on the wrong side of every argument, but that now he has become a superior person with God on his side.
• Pg.139: Drinking occasionally, and understanding your own reactions, it is possible for you to become quite sure of many things which, so far as the alcoholic is concerned, are not always so.
• Pg.151: It thickened, ever becoming blacker.
• Pg.153: It may seem incredible that these men are to become happy, respected, and useful once more.
• Pg.158: He too, has become a respected and useful member of his community.
• Pg.160: This couple has since become so fascinated that they have dedicated their home to the work.
• Pg.163: Some of them may sink and perhaps never get up, but if our experience is a criterion, more than half of those approached will become fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.

• Pg.8: I wondered whether I dared hide a full bottle of gin near the head of our bed.
• Pg.19: After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again.
• Pg.21: He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around.
• Pg.41: When I returned to the hotel it struck me a highball would be fine before going to bed, so I stepped into the bar and had one.
• Pg.56: This man recounts that he tumbled out of bed to his knees.
• Pg.157: Two days later, a future fellow of Alcoholics Anonymous stared glassily at the strangers beside his bed.
• Pg.157: The man in the bed was told of the acute poisoning from which he suffered, how it deteriorates the body of an alcoholic and warps his mind.

• Pg.52: We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn't control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn't make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn't seem to be of real help to other people - was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight?

• Pg.1: Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier - Who caught his death - Drinking cold small beer.
• Pg.5: A tumbler full of gin followed by half a dozen bottles of beer would be required if I were to eat any breakfast.
• Pg.20: "Why don't you try beer and wine?"
• Pg.24: The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us.
• Pg.31: Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, ..., ..., ... - we could increase the list ad infinitum.
• Pg.142: If he temporizes and still thinks he can ever drink again, even beer, he might as well be discharged after the next bender which, if an alcoholic, he is almost certain to have.

• Pg.26: He begged the doctor to tell him the whole truth, and he got it.
• Pg.49: We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion.
• Pg.58: With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start.
• Pg.105: We have prayed, we have begged, we have been patient.

• Pg.xvi: But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth’s description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster.
• Pg.xvii: The fledgling society, which had been nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous, from the title of its own book.
• Pg.xvii: With the appearance of the new book a great deal began to happen.
• Pg.xx: But great numbers of these—about two out of three—began to return as time passed.
• Pg.3: I began to be jittery in the morning.
• Pg.4: My wife began to work in a department store, coming home exhausted to find me drunk.
• Pg.5: This went on endlessly, and I began to waken very early in the morning shaking violently.
• Pg.5: Was I crazy? I began to wonder, for such an appalling lack of perspective seemed near being just that.
• Pg.6: (pg.5) Some time (pg.6) passed, and confidence began to be replaced by cock-sureness.
• Pg.11: It began to look as though religious people were right after all.
• Pg.35: His family was re-assembled, and he began to work as a salesman for the business he had lost through drinking.
• Pg.37: We now see that when we began to drink deliberately, instead of casually, there was little serious or effective thought during the period of premeditation of what the terrific consequences might be.
• Pg.40: I had no trouble refusing drinks, and began to wonder if I had not been making too hard work of a simple matter.
• Pg.46: As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps.
• Pg.53: (pg.52) When others showed us that "God-sufficiency" (pg.53) worked with them, we began to feel like those who had insisted the Wrights would never fly.
• Pg.63: As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter.
• Pg.66: We began to see that the world and its people really dominated us.
• Pg.106: We began to ask medical advice as the sprees got closer together.
• Pg.116: As our husbands began to apply spiritual principles in their lives, we began to see the desirability of doing so too.

• Pg.xxi: Yet it is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the high road to a new freedom.
• Pg.21: He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.
• Pg.22: As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work.
• Pg.22: Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.
• Pg.27: Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.
• Pg.47: That was? growth, but if we wished to grow we had to begin somewhere.
• Pg.61: He begins to think life doesn't treat him right.
• Pg.75: We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator.
• Pg.75: We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.
• Pg.80: The husband begins to feel lonely, sorry for himself.
• Pg.86: Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.
• Pg.92: If you are satisfied that he is a real alcoholic, begin to dwell on the hopeless feature of the malady.
• Pg.109: But when he gets over the spree, he begins to think once more how he can drink moderately next time.
• Pg.127: As each member of a resentful family begins to see his shortcomings and admits them to the others, he lays a basis for helpful discussion.
• Pg.128: As soon as his sobriety begins to be taken as a matter of course, the family may look at their strange new dad with apprehension, then with irritation.
• Pg.130: Father, coming suddenly to life again, often begins to assert himself.
• Pg.163: We believe and hope it contains all you will need to begin.

• Pg.xv: All told, promising beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign countries and U. S. possessions.
• Pg.xv: Many of our friends encourage us by saying that this is but a beginning, only the augury of a much larger future ahead.
• Pg.8: In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch.
• Pg.12: Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning.
• Pg.19: We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning.
• Pg.35: He made a beginning.
• Pg.37: But even in this type of beginning we are obliged to admit that our justification for a spree was insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened.
• Pg.49: Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.
• Pg.63: This was only a beginning, though if honestly and humbly made, an effect, sometimes a very great one, was felt at once.
• Pg.71: If you have already made a decision, and an inventory of your grosser handicaps, you have made a good beginning.
• Pg.76: Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.
• Pg.109: Maybe he is beginning to lose his friends.
• Pg.118: The chances are he will not for, like yourself, he is just beginning his development.
• Pg.125: At the beginning of recovery a man will take, as a rule, one of two directions.
• Pg.126: Beginning with such complaints, a barrier arises.
• Pg.131: At the very beginning, the couple ought to frankly face the fact that each will have to yield here and there if the family is going to play an effective part in the new life.

• Pg.24: How often have some of us begun to drink in this nonchalant way, and after the third or fourth, pounded on the bar and said to ourselves, "For God's sake, how did I ever get started again?"
• Pg.70: We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality.
• Pg.70: We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people.
• Pg.85: If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us.
• Pg.85: We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense.
• Pg.109: He has begun to try, with or without your cooperation, various means of moderating or staying dry.
• Pg.109: Maybe the doctor has been called in, and the weary round of sanitariums and hospitals has begun.
• Pg.117: Seed has started to sprout in a new soil, but growth has only begun.
• Pg.158: He had begun to have a spiritual experience.

• Pg.7: My incredible behavior in the face of a desperate desire to stop was explained.
• Pg.22: This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary.
• Pg.22: Why does he behave like this?
• Pg.37: Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion, say, for jay-walking.
• Pg.62: (pg.61) He is like the retired business man who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all would be Utopia (pg.62) if the rest of the world would only behave; the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and the alcoholic who has lost all and is locked up.
• Pg.83: Our behavior will convince them more than our words.
• Pg.90: Get an idea of his behavior, his problems, his background, the seriousness of his condition, and his religious leanings.
• Pg.107: Had we fully understood the nature of the alcoholic illness, we might have behaved differently.
• Pg.129: If the family will appreciate that dad's current behavior is but a phase of his development, all will be well.

• Pg.xvi: Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.
• Pg.xxiv: In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.
• Pg.13: Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility (pg.14) to establish and maintain the new order of things, were the essential requirements.
• Pg.28: Those having religious affiliations will find here nothing disturbing to their beliefs or ceremonies.
• Pg.32: Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic has - that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men.
• Pg.49: We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.
• Pg.55: The consciousness of your belief is sure to come to you.
• Pg.75: We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.
• Pg.101: In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure.
• Pg.133: We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us.
• Pg.162: We are greatly indebted to the doctor in attendance there, for he, although it might prejudice his own work, has told us of his belief in ours.

• Pg.xxiii: We of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the reader will be interested in the medical estimate of the plan of recovery described in this book.
• Pg.xxiv: In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe-that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind.
• Pg.xxv: They believe in themselves, and still more in the Power which pulls chronic alcoholics back from the gates of death.
• Pg.xxvi: We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
• Pg.xxvii: I do not hold with those who believe that alcoholism is entirely a problem of mental control.
• Pg.xxviii: There is the type who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger.
• Pg.xxix: He frankly admitted and believed that for him there was no hope.
• Pg.10: I had always believed in a Power greater than myself.
• Pg.10: I simply had to believe in a Spirit of the Universe, who knew neither time nor limitation.
• Pg.12: It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself.
• Pg.12: I felt, I believed.
• Pg.18: An illness of this sort - and we have come to believe it an illness - involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can.
• Pg.25: But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it.
• Pg.25: If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution.
• Pg.26: Above all, he believed he had acquired such a profound knowledge of the inner workings of his mind and its hidden springs that relapse was unthinkable.
• Pg.29: Our hope is that many alcoholic men and women, desperately in need, will see these pages, and we believe that it is only by fully disclosing ourselves and our problems that they will be persuaded to say, "Yes, I am one of them too; I must have this thing."
• Pg.31: Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class.
• Pg.32: Though there is no way of proving it, we believe that early in our drinking careers most of us could have stopped drinking.
• Pg.33: Most of us have believed that if we remained sober for a long stretch, we could thereafter drink normally.
• Pg.39: Fred would not believe himself an alcoholic, much less accept a spiritual remedy for his problem.
• Pg.40: Let him tell you about it: "I was much impressed with what you fellows said about alcoholism, and? I frankly did not believe it would be possible for me to drink again.
• Pg.45: That means we have written a book which we believe to be spiritual as well as moral.
• Pg.46: We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God.
• Pg.46: It is open, we believe, to all men.
• Pg.47: "Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?"
• Pg.47: As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way.
• Pg.47: That was great news to us, for we had assumed we could not make use of spiritual principles unless we accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to believe.
• Pg.47: When people presented us with spiritual approaches, how frequently did we all say, "I wish I had what that man has. I'm sure it would work if I could only believe as he believes. ..."
• Pg.48: The reader may still ask why he should believe in a Power greater than himself.
• Pg.48: Everybody believes them without a murmur of doubt.
• Pg.48: Everybody nowadays, believes in scores of assumptions for which there is good evidence, but no perfect visual proof.
• Pg.49: We read wordy books and indulge in windy arguments, thinking we believe this universe needs no God to explain it.
• Pg.49: Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.
• Pg.50: Every one of them has gained access to, and believes in, a Power greater than himself.
• Pg.50: They flatly declare that since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking.
• Pg.53: Hence we are at pains to tell why we think our present faith is reasonable, why we think it more sane and logical to believe than not to believe, why we say our former thinking was soft and mushy when we threw up our hands in doubt and said, "We don't know."
• Pg.54: (pg.53) For did (pg.54) we not believe in our own reasoning?
• Pg.54: But we believed in life - of course we did.
• Pg.57: Circumstances made him willing to believe.
• Pg.59: 2.) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
• Pg.70: If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson.
• Pg.86: Yet, we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions.
• Pg.93: The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.
• Pg.105: We have believed them when no one else could or would.
• Pg.116: At first, some of us did not believe we needed this help.
• Pg.123: God, they believe, almost owes this recompense on a long overdue account.
• Pg.130: Those of us who have spent much time in the world of spiritual make-believe have eventually seen the childishness of it.
• Pg.130: We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads in the clouds with Him, but that our feet ought to be firmly planted on earth.
• Pg.138: He simply could not believe that his (pg.139) brother-executive suffered from a serious illness.
• Pg.142: Say that you believe he is a gravely ill person, with this qualification - being perhaps fatally ill, does he want to get well?
• Pg.142: We believe a man should be thoroughly probed on these points.
• Pg.143: If you propose such a procedure to him, it may be necessary to advance the cost of treatment, but we believe it should be made plain that any expense will later be deducted from his pay.
• Pg.149: But alcoholism - well, they just don't believe they have it.
• Pg.149: We believe that managers of large enterprises often have little idea how prevalent this problem is.
• Pg.163: We believe and hope it contains all you will need to begin.

• Pg.7: Under the so-called belladonna treatment my brain cleared.

• Pg.74: Those of us belonging to a religious denomination which requires confession must, and of course, will want to go to the properly appointed authority whose duty it is to receive it.
• Pg.87: If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also.
• Pg.93: Your prospect may belong to a religious denomination

• Pg.5: Then I went on a prodigious bender, and that chance vanished.
• Pg.23: If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis.
• Pg.139: Of an evening, you can go on a mild bender, get up in the morning, shake your head and go to business.
• Pg.142: If he temporizes and still thinks he can ever drink again, even beer, he might as well be discharged after the next bender which, if an alcoholic, he is almost certain to have.
• Pg.155: Some time later, and just as he thought he was getting control of his liquor situation, he went on a roaring bender.

• Pg.77: We may kill a future opportunity to carry a beneficial message.
• Pg.77: It is harder to go to an enemy than to a friend, but we find it much more beneficial to us.
• Pg.134: Many of us have noticed a tendency to eat sweets and have found this practice beneficial.

• Pg.xxvi: (pg.xxv) Of course an alcoholic ought to be freed from his physical (pg.xxvi) craving for liquor, and this often requires a definite hospital procedure, before psychological measures can be of maximum benefit.
• Pg.84: No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
• Pg.164: Still you may say: "But I will not have the benefit of contact with you who write this book."

• Pg.xviii: Soon A.A. was beset by these very problems on every side and in every group.

• Pg.xxix: What is the solution? Perhaps I can best answer this by relating one of my experiences.
• Pg.2: We had long talks when I would still her forebodings by telling her that men of genius conceived their best projects when drunk; that the most majestic constructions of philosophic thought were so derived.
• Pg.7: Best of all, I met a kind doctor who explained that though certainly selfish and foolish, I had been seriously ill, bodily and mentally.
• Pg.11: Then he had, in effect, been raised from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to a level of life better than the best he had ever known!
• Pg.25: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.
• Pg.26: He had consulted the best known American psychiatrists.
• Pg.43: My old manner of life was by no means a bad one, but I would not exchange its best moments for the worst I have now.
• Pg.51: Students of ancient history tell us that the intellect of men in those days was equal to the best of today.
• Pg.51: Was it not true that the best mathematical minds had proved man could never fly?
• Pg.55: (pg.54) Neither is reason, as most of us use it, entirely dependable, (pg.55) though it emanate from our best minds.
• Pg.61: Is he not, even in his best moments, a producer of confusion rather than harmony?
• Pg.63: We found it very desirable to take this spiritual step with an understanding person, such as our wife, best friend or spiritual adviser.
• Pg.72: The best reason first: If we skip this vital step {5th step}, we may not overcome drinking.
• Pg.78: Arranging the best deal we can we let these people know we are sorry.
• Pg.81: Though there may be justifiable exceptions, and though we wish to lay down no rule of any sort, we have often found this the best course to take.
• Pg.85: "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done."
• Pg.99: Sometimes it is to the best interest of all concerned that a couple remain apart.
• Pg.102: Go or stay away, whichever seems best.
• Pg.112: If this kind of approach does not catch your husband's interest, it may be best to drop the subject, but after a friendly talk your husband will usually revive the topic himself.
• Pg.115: Unless they actually need protection from their father, it is best not to take sides in any argument he has with them while drinking.
• Pg.136: "...He left us a note saying you were the best boss he ever had, and that you were not to blame in any way."
• Pg.137: It was the obituary of one of the best salesmen I ever had.
• Pg.137: I had been obliged to discharge him for drinking, though he was brilliant, alert, and one of the best organizers I have ever known.
• Pg.138: And we, who have imposed on the best of employers, can scarcely blame them if they have been short with us.
• Pg.142: This may seem severe, but it is usually the best course.
• Pg.143: Though you are providing him with the best possible medical attention, he should understand that he must undergo a change of heart.
• Pg.144: When the man is presented with this volume it is best that no one tell him he must abide by its suggestions.
• Pg.145: He may, for example, reveal that he has padded his expense account or that he has planned to take your best customers away from you.
• Pg.153: Perhaps the best way of treating you to a glimpse of your future will be to describe the growth of the fellowship among us.

• Pg.119: Still another difficulty is that you may become jealous of the attention he bestows on other people, especially alcoholics.

• Pg.xiii: We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic.
• Pg.4: He had plenty of money left and thought I had better go to Canada.
• Pg.6: As the whisky rose to my head I told myself I would manage better next time, but I might as well get good and drunk then.
• Pg.11: Then he had, in effect, been raised from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to a level of life better than the best he had ever known!
• Pg.14: "Something has happened to you I don't understand. But you had better hang on to it. Anything is better than the way you were."
• Pg.30: Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
• Pg.44: If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us (pg.45) would have recovered long ago.
• Pg.54: And then, with a better motive, had we not worshipfully beheld the sunset, the sea, or a flower?
• Pg.63: Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
• Pg.63: But it is better to meet God alone than with one who might misunderstand.
• Pg.68: Perhaps there is a better way - we think so.
• Pg.70: If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson.
• Pg.75: We thank God from the bottom of our heart that we know Him better.
• Pg.77: It may be he has done us more harm than we have done him and, though we may have acquired a better attitude toward him, we are still not too keen about admitting our faults.
• Pg.80: After consulting with his wife and partner he came to the conclusion that it was better to take those risks than to stand before his Creator guilty of such ruinous slander.
• Pg.82: It is better, however, that one does not needlessly name a person upon whom she can vent jealousy.
• Pg.85: Better men (pg.86) than we are using it constantly.
• Pg.86: What could we have done better?
• Pg.90: The family may object to this, but unless he is in a dangerous physical condition, it is better to risk it.
• Pg.91: Approach through a doctor or an institution is a better bet.
• Pg.91: When your man is better, the doctor might suggest a visit from you.
• Pg.91: You will thus get a better idea of how you ought to proceed.
• Pg.92: If his own doctor is willing to tell him that he is alcoholic, so much the better.
• Pg.93: When dealing with such a person, you had better use everyday language to describe spiritual principles.
• Pg.94: The more hopeless he feels, the better.
• Pg.97: Should they accept and practice spiritual principles, there is a much better chance that the head of the family will recover.
• Pg.99: If their old relationship is to be resumed it must be on a better basis, since the former did not work.
• Pg.100: When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned.
• Pg.102: But if you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead!
• Pg.103: Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility.
• Pg.108: You can see that he really does love you with his better self.
• Pg.108: Today most of our men are better husbands and fathers than ever before.
• Pg.108: If you are positive he is one of this type you may feel you had better leave.
• Pg.109: He admits this is true, but is positive that he will do better.
• Pg.112: You think he ought to know the subject better, as everyone should have a clear understanding of the risk he takes if he drinks too much.
• Pg.113: In some cases it may be better to let someone outside the family present the book.
• Pg.115: Use your energies to promote a better understanding all around.
• Pg.116: We have elsewhere remarked how much better life is when lived on a spiritual plane.
• Pg.117: A better way of life will emerge when they are overcome.
• Pg.120: You will lose the old life to find one much better.
• Pg.120: Though it is infinitely better that he have no relapse at all, as has been true with many of our men, it is by no means a bad thing in some cases.
• Pg.120: If not, it had better be found out right away.
• Pg.125: We find it better, when possible, to stick to our own stories.
• Pg.128: He may tell mother, who has been religious all her life, that she doesn't know what it's all about, and that she had better get his brand of spirituality while there is yet time.
• >Pg.129: Father feels he has struck something better than gold.
• Pg.130: Nothing will help the man who is off on a spiritual tangent so much as the wife who adopts a sane spiritual program, making a better practical use of it.
• Pg.137: We think the business fabric is shot through with a situation which might be helped by better understanding all around.
• Pg.139: Even when you understand the malady better, you may find this feeling rising.
• Pg.141: If you are sure your man does not want to stop, he may as well be discharged, the sooner the better.
• Pg.143: Your man will fare better if placed in such physical condition that he can think straight and no longer craves liquor.
• Pg.143: It is better for him to feel fully responsible.
• Pg.146: An alcoholic who has recovered, but holds a relatively unimportant job, can talk to a man with a better position.
• Pg.147: So, for one reason or another, they cover these men, hoping matters will take a turn for the better.
• Pg.153: Now and then a serious drinker, being dry at the moment says, "I don't miss it at all. Feel better. Work better. Having a better time."

• Pg.144: You are betting, of course, that your changed attitude plus the contents of this book will turn the trick.

• Pg.151: Momentarily we did - then would come oblivion and the awful awakening to face the hideous Four Horsemen - Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, Despair. Unhappy drinkers who read this page will understand!

• Pg.51: We asked ourselves this: Are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material?

• Pg.76: "...Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen."

• Pg.17: We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill.

• Pg.5: Sometimes a small deal would net a few hundred dollars, and I would pay my bills at the bars and delicatessens.
• Pg.83: A remorseful mumbling that we are sorry won't fill the bill at all.
• Pg.106: The bill collectors, the sheriffs, the angry taxi drivers, the policemen, the bums, the pals, and even the ladies they sometimes brought home - our husbands thought we were so inhospitable. "joykiller, nag, wet blanket"- that's what they said.
• Pg.154: One dismal afternoon he paced a hotel lobby wondering how his bill was to be paid.
• Pg.155: It was the usual situation: home in jeopardy, wife ill, children distracted, bills in arrears and standing damaged.

• Pg.17: The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.

• Pg.90: Sometimes? it is wise to wait till he goes on a binge.
• Pg.112: But after his next binge, ask him if he would really like to get over drinking for good.

• Pg.8: No words can tell of the loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass of self-pity.
• Pg.25: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.
• Pg.39: This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience.
• Pg.105: (pg.104) We have been (pg.105) driven to maudlin sympathy, to bitter resentment.

• Pg.56: Our friend's gorge rose as he bitterly cried out: "If there is a God, He certainly hasn't done anything for me!"
• Pg.80: While drinking, he accepted a sum of money from a bitterly-hated business rival, giving him no receipt for it.
• Pg.154: Bitterly discouraged, he found himself in a strange place, discredited and almost broke.

• Pg.15: I have seen hundreds of families set their feet in the path that really goes somewhere; have seen the most impossible domestic situations righted; feuds and bitterness of all sorts wiped out.
• Pg.69: Did we unjustifiably arouse jealousy, suspicion or bitterness?
• Pg.103: Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility.

• Pg.67: We placed them {faults} before us in black and white.
• Pg.151: It thickened, ever becoming blacker.

• Pg.61: Admitting he may be somewhat at fault, he is sure that other people are more to blame.
• Pg.67: Where were we to blame?
• Pg.120: If he gets drunk, don't blame yourself.
• Pg.123: Father knows he is to blame; it may take him many seasons of hard work to be restored financially, but he shouldn't be reproached.
• Pg.127: The head of the house ought to remember that he is mainly to blame for what befell his home.
• Pg.136: "...He left us a note saying you were the best boss he ever had, and that you were not to blame in any way."
• Pg.138: And we, who have imposed on the best of employers, can scarcely blame them if they have been short with us.