There are many short bits of wisdom that are easily remembered, and great for use in moments of dis-ease, dis-comfort, or dis-stress to bring serenity, peace, perspective or understanding. The following are some of our favorites.
Just for Today
One Day At A Time
H.A.L.T. – Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
Just Do It
It Works If You Work It
Keep Coming Back
Breathe
Easy Does It, But Do It
Try
The Only Meeting You’re Late for is Your First One
Be Kind
If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is!
Be Positive
Hunt the Good Stuff
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going
There is only Love and Fear, You cannot serve Two Masters
Can’t Save Your Ass and Face at the Same Time
Don’t Be Nervous, Get Into Service
Who’d You Help Today?
Do A Good Turn Daily
Keep It Simple
When in Rome…
Go with the flow
First things first.
Live and let live
But for the grace of God, there go I…
Think, think, think.
One day at time.
Let go and let God.
Act as if.
This too shall pass.
Expect miracles.
If it works, don’t fix it.
Keep coming back; it works if you work it.
Progress not perfection.
Don’t leave til the miracle happens…
Can’t see the forest from the trees…
You ain’t seen nothing yet…
Stick with the winners.
Poor me, poor me, pour me another drink.
Change is a process, not an event.
Take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth.
Sick and tired of being sick and tired.
It’s the first drink that gets you drunk.
To keep what we have, we must give it away.
Take what you need and leave the rest.
Around A.A. or in A.A.?
You can’t give away what you don’t have.
One is too many and a thousand is not enough.
Half measures availed us nothing.
Anger is but one letter away from danger.
G.O.D. = Good Orderly Direction.
Be as enthusiastic about A.A. as you were about drinking.
Principles before personalities.
When you do all the talking you only learn what you already know.
Seven days without an A.A. meeting makes one weak.
H.O.W. = Honesty, Open-mindedness, and Willingness.
Slogans are wisdom written in shorthand.
Fake it till you make it.
Live life on life’s terms.
A.A. spoils your drinking.
First things first.
If you can’t remember your last drink, maybe you haven’t had it.
This too shall pass.
One is too many and a thousand is not enough.
If hanging around A.A. doesn’t work, try hanging inside A.A.
Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
S.L.I.P. = Sobriety Lost Its Priority.
Learn to listen and listen to learn.
Meeting makers make it.
Progress, not perfection.
Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die.
Keep it simple.
Although we are not responsible for our disease, we are responsible for our recovery.
Hugs not drugs.
Pass it on.
You only get out of it what you put into it.
An addict alone is in bad company.
Recovery begins with the first step.
It is possible to change without improving – it is impossible to improve without change.
An addict cannot be grateful and hateful at the same time.
Easy does it, but do it.
My worst day sober is better than my best day drunk.
Sobriety is a journey, not a destination.
Faith without works is dead.
Faith can move mountains, bring a shovel…
To thine own self be true.
I came; I came to; I came to believe (Steps 1, 2, 3).
Live in the NOW.
If God seems far away, who moved?
Turn it over
AA = Altered Attitudes.
Nothing is so bad a drink won’t make it worse.
We are only as sick as our secrets.
There are no coincidences in AA.
Be part of the solution, not the problem.
Sponsors: have one, use one, be one.
I can’t handle it God; you take over.
Keep an open mind.
Willingness is the key.
More will be revealed.
No pain, no gain.
Keep the plug in the jug.
Let it begin with me.
Pass it on.
Before you say, “I can’t,” say, “I’ll try.”
Don’t quit before the miracle happens.
We’re all here because we’re not all there.
Alcoholism is an equal opportunity destroyer.
Practice an attitude of gratitude.
The road to sobriety is a simple journey for confused people with a complicated disease.
God is never late.
Have a good day, unless of course you’ve made other plans.
Decisions aren’t forever.
It takes time.
90 meetings in 90 days.
You are not alone.
Use the 24-hour plan.
Stay sober for yourself.
Look for the similarities rather than differences.
Remember your last drunk.
Remember that alcoholism is incurable, progressive, and fatal.
When all else fails, follow directions.
Count your blessings.
Share your happiness.
Respect the anonymity of others.
Let go of old ideas.
Try to replace guilt with gratitude.
What goes around comes around.
Call your sponsor before, not after, you take the first drink.
Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
The price for serenity and sanity is self-sacrifice.
Help is only a phone call away.
Courage to change.
Easy does it, but DO it.
Bring the body and the mind will follow.
Remember when!
There are 12 steps in the ladder of complete sobriety.
Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.
Before engaging your mouth, put your mind in gear.
I want what I want when I want it.
There is no chemical solution to a spiritual problem.
A.A. is not something you join, it’s a way of life.
We can be positive that our drinking was negative.
Spirituality is the ability to get our minds off ourselves.
Faith is spelled a-c-t-i-o-n.
Take the mess to your sponsor; take the message to the meeting.
If I think, I won’t drink. If I drink, I can’t think.
Stay in the main tent and out of the sideshow.
The first step in overcoming mistakes is to admit them.
Formula for failure; try to please everyone.
Sorrow is looking back; worry is looking around.
Willpower = our willingness to use a Higher Power.
A. A. is an education without graduation.
When your head begins to swell your mind stops growing.
A journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first step.
You received without cost, now give without charge.
Humility is our acceptance of ourselves.
Trying to pray is praying.
Get it —give it—grow in it.
Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.
We’re responsible for the effort, not the outcome.
This is a selfish program.
E.G.O. = Edging God Out.
Keep your sobriety first to make it last.
A.A. will work if you want it to work.
Minds are like parachutes—-they won’t work unless they’re open.
What you hear and see here, stays here.
Alcoholism is the only disease that tells you you’re all right.
If you turn it over and don’t let go of it, you will be upside down.
An A.A. meeting is where losers get together to talk about their winnings.
A.A. is a school in which we are all learners and teachers.
Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.
A.A. may not solve all your problems, but it is willing to share them.
It isn’t the load that weighs us down—it’s the way we carry it.
The 7t’s —Take Time to Think the Thing Through.
There are none too dumb for the A.A. program, but many are too smart.
We all have another drunk left in us, but we don’t know if we have another recovery in us.
To be forgiven we must forgive.
When we surrender to our Higher Power, the journey begins.
The person with the most sobriety at a meeting is the one who got up earliest that morning.
Knowledge of the answers never made anyone slip—it was failing to practice the answers known.
H.A.L.T. = Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired.
F.E.A.R. = Frustration, Ego, Anxiety, and Resentment.
When a person tries to control their drinking they have already lost control.
The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.
You are not required to like it; you’re only required to DO it.
In A.A. we don’t carry the alcoholic; we carry the message.
The results are in God’s hands.
We are not human beings having spiritual experiences; we are spiritual beings having human experiences.
Remember nothing is going to happen today that you and God can’t handle.
It’s a shame we can’t forget our troubles the same way we forget our blessings.
Be careful what you pray for; you’re liable to get it.
The time to attend a meeting is when you least feel like going.
A.A. is the highest priced club in the world. If you have paid the dues, why not enjoy the benefits?
The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.
A.A. never opened the gates of heaven to let me in; A.A. did open the gates of hell to let me out.
Time wasted in getting even can never be used in getting ahead.
Some A.A.’s are so successful that they turn out to be almost as good as they used to think they were when they were drinking.
Sobriety delivers everything alcohol promised.
Possibilities and miracles are one in the same.
Get out of the driver’s seat and let God.
Taking others inventory (when you should be taking your own).
First we stay sober because we have to…then we stay sober because we are willing…then we stay sober because we want to.
Active alcoholics don’t have relationships; they take hostages.
Every day is a gift, that’s why we call it the present.
If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober hour.
A.A. has a wrench to fit every nut that walks through the door.
Living in the here and now.
If you want to drink, that’s your business…if you want to quit and can’t, that’s A.A.’s business.
In a bar, we got sympathy—as long as our money lasted. In A.A., we get understanding for nothing.
The elevator is broken—use the steps.
Let it begin with me.
When all else fails, the directions are in the Big Book.
Trust God, clean house, and help others.
Anonymity is so important it’s half of our name.
If we don’t grow, we gotta go.
All you need to start your own A.A. meeting is resentment and a coffee pot.
Religion is for those who fear Hell; spirituality is for those who have been there.
Intolerance = Contempt, prior to investigation.
When you are a sponsor, you get out of yourself. If I serve, I will be served.
Why recovery never ends; the disease is alcoholism, not alcoholWASm.
The A.A. way of life is meant to be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions.
The smartest thing an A.A. member can say is “help.”
You are exactly where you are supposed to be.
God will never give you more than you can handle.
Slow but sure.
A coincidence is a miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.
There is no such thing as a bad meeting.
Give time time.
I can do something for 24 hours that would appall me if I had to keep it up for a LIFETIME.
The lesson I must learn is simply that my control is limited to my own behavior and my own attitudes.
A.A. works for people who believe in God. A.A. works for people who don’t believe in God. A.A. NEVER works for people who believe they ARE God.
Just for today I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle all my problems at once.
There are two days in every week which we have no control over—yesterday and tomorrow.
Today is the only day we can change.
It is not the experience of today that drives people mad, it is the remorse of yesterday and the dread of tomorrow.
A drug is a drug is a drug.
Pain is the touchstone of spiritual growth.
There is a God and I’m not it.
The road to resentment is paved with expectation.
Be nice to newcomers; one day they may be your sponsor.
Denial is not a river in Egypt, but you can drown in it.
Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.
The flip side of forgiveness is resentment.
There is no magic in recovery only miracles.
Fear is the absence of faith.
Courage is faith that has said its prayers.
Depression is anger toward inward.
3 A’s in A.A. —Affection, attention, and appreciation.
If it’s meant to be, I can’t stop it. If it isn’t God’s will, I can’t make it happen.
We’ll love you, until you learn to love yourself.
Try to be grateful and resentful at the same time; you can’t serve two masters.
Write a gratitude list and count your blessings.
You can always tell an alcoholic, but you can’t tell him much.
Unity, recovery, and service.
Sobriety, then serenity.
Live life on life’s terms.
People who are wrapped up in themselves make a very small package indeed.
The bottle, the big house, or the box.
Death, insanity, or recovery.
We have a choice.
We don’t get run over by the train; we get hit by the engine (1st drink).
If you wonder if you’re an alcoholic or addict, you probably are.
Instant a–hole, just add alcohol.
I didn’t get into trouble every time I drank, but every time I got in trouble I was drunk.
Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.
Success means getting your BUT out of the way.
Don’t work my program or your program, work THE program.
If you want what we have, you have to be willing to go to any lengths to get it.
Ask us how we did it, and then do what we did.
Qualifications for me to help you: 1. you have to need it, 2. you have to want it, 3. you have to ask for it and 4. you have to ask me.
The alcoholic’s mind is like a bad neighborhood; don’t go there alone.
Faith without works is dead.
Get to the meeting early and go to the meeting after the meeting.
The definition of an alcoholic; an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.
Cunning, baffling, powerful, and patient.
When the pain of staying sober becomes less than the pain of getting drunk, you’ll stay sober.
None of us came here on a winning streak.
The farther I get from my last drink, the closer I get to my next drunk.
This too shall pass.
How does it work? It works just fine.
If you hang around the barber shop long enough, you’ll get a haircut.
Once an alcoholic/addict, always an alcoholic/addict.
I might have another drunk left in me, but do I have another recovery?
Short version of the Serenity Prayer: Lighten up.
You don’t have to wait till you get to the basement to get off the down elevator.
F.E.A.R. = False Evidence Appearing Real.
F.E.A.R. = False Expectations Appearing Real.
F.E.A.R = Face Everything and Recover
F.E.A.R – F-ck Everything And Run
F.I.N.E. =F–ked-up, insecure, neurotic, and emotional.
In A.A. I get an owner’s manual to go with my new life.
N.U.T.S. = Not Using the Steps
If you want to stay sober, make the coffee.
If you fly with crows, you get shot at.
I got sick of being sick and tired.
Life starts when you stop.
You have to give it away in order to keep it.
Fake it till you make it.
It’s a selfish program.
Today there’s still a monkey on my back; he’s just sleeping and he’s real easy to wake up.
Fear alone won’t keep me sober, but for a newcomer, it’s not a bad place to start.
I’ve been here a few 24 hours.
Under every dress there’s a slip.
You have to go to these meetings until you want to.
Don’t let unpleasant people rent space in your head.
If you stick with the bunch, you’ll get peeled.
It gets better.
The doors swing both ways.
Try it for 90 days and if you don’t like it, we’ll gladly refund your misery.
Don’t drink, don’t think, and don’t get married.
Some people drink normally, and I normally drink.
Expectations are Premeditated Resentments
A slip is a premeditated drunk.
Go to meetings when you want to, and go to meetings when you don’t want to.
It’s been a good meeting so far.
We have a disease that tells us we don’t have a disease.
We have a living problem, not a drinking problem.
We have a thinking problem, not a drinking problem.
If you don’t want to slip, stay away from slippery places.
The mind is like a parachute, it works better when it’s open.
Pain is the touchstone of progress.
My daily sobriety is contingent on my spiritual condition.
Yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, only today is cash in the bank.
Sorrow shared is halved; joy shared is doubled.
There is pain in recovery. Misery is optional.
Lead us not into temptation. I can find it myself
Ask an alcoholic what time it is and he’ll tell you how to build a clock
Please be patient—God isn’t finished with me yet
I am unique, just like everybody else
Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs
My best friend became my worst enemy
When my insides match my outside, I’m practicing a good program.
Today I soak up A.A. the way I used to soak up alcohol
When I drank, I was committing suicide on the installment plan
A winner is a loser who keeps trying
I don’t always know what God’s will is for me, but I always know what it’s not
I didn’t get sober to be miserable
Are you walking towards a drink or away from one?
God could and would if He were sought
Today I have more solutions than problems
If God is your co-pilot, switch seats
Don’t go into your head alone. It’s a dangerous neighborhood
With a stomach full of A.A., you won’t have room for a beer
Listen like only the dying can
There’s safety in numbers; one through twelve
My disease is doing pushups, getting stronger–just waiting for me to slip
A.A. is a simple program for complicated people
My best thinking got me here
I am a walking miracle
Don’t romance the drink
When I start wondering if everything’s okay, it’s probably not
If hanging around A.A. doesn’t work, try hanging out inside A.A.
Before I got into A.A., I was dying for a drink
God grant me patience; right now
My sponsor says I’m trying, very trying.
20/20: Come 20 minutes before the meeting, stay 20 minutes after
When the student is ready, the teacher appears
You can’t speed up your recovery, but you sure can slow it down.
Every drink I drank got me here. Every drink I don’t drink keeps me here.
It takes time to get your brains out of hock.
Stand by the coffee pot. It’s a good way to meet people.
People who think they know it all are very irritating to those of us who do.
Always remember the insanity…Be thankful for the pain…But most of all be thankful for the days that remain
From weakness (adversity) comes strength.
We forgive to be forgiven
You can Only Keep What You Have By Giving It Away
You Were Sick, Now You’re Well, and There’s Work to Do
We surrender to win
We die to live.
From darkness comes light
From dependence we found independence
People, places and things
S.O.B.E.R. = Son of a Bitch, Everything’s Real
First Thought Wrong <Insert Name Here>
Grow Up or Die
F-ck Your Feelings
Easy does it, but do it
Try
Keep it simple
Don’t be nervous, get into service
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest places if you look at it right…