From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click
to display the full page from the Big Book1.
... began has
Alcoholics Anonymous been divided by ...
12&12 p.176,
Tradition Ten
2.
... began in
1935 at Akron, Ohio, as ...
12&12 p.16,
Foreword
Alcoholics Anonymous began in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting between a well-known surgeon and a New York broker.
3.
... began to
act like most everybody does ...
12&12 p.140,
Tradition Three
4.
... began to
apply spiritual principles in their ...
BB p.116,
To Wives
As our husbands began to
apply spiritual principles in their lives,
we began to see the desirability of doing so
too.
5.
... began to
ask medical advice as the ...
BB p.106,
To Wives
6.
... began to
be called Alcoholics Anonymous, from ...
BB xvii,
Foreword to Second Edition
The fledgling society,
which had been nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous, from the title
of its own book.
7.
... began to
be jittery in the morning.
BB p.3,
Bill's Story
8.
... began to
be possessed of a new ...
BB p.46,
We Agnostics
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.
9.
... began to
be replaced by cocksureness.
BB p.6,
Bill's Story
10.
... began to
carry bright promise and meaning.
12&12 p.75,
Step Seven
But now the words "Of myself I am nothing, the Father doeth the works" began to carry bright promise and meaning.
11.
... began to
come to us, we felt ...
12&12 p.29,
Step Two
"As material success founded upon no more than these ordinary attributes
began to come to us, we felt we were winning at the game of life.
12.
... began to
cry, "There oughtta be a ...
12&12 p.157,
Tradition Six
Watching alcoholics
committed willy-nilly to prisons or asylums, we began to cry, "There oughtta be a law!"
13.
... began to
cut us off, nearly all ...
12&12 p.57,
Step Five
Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered
the feeling that we didn't quite belong.
14.
... began to
do that, we received the ...
12&12 p.30,
Step Two
15.
... began to
drink deliberately, instead of casually, ...
BB p.37,
More About Alcoholism
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.
16.
... began to
evaporate.
12&12 p.75,
Step Seven
The notion that we would still live our own lives, God helping a little now and then, began to evaporate.
17.
... began to
fear pain less, and desire ...
12&12 p.75,
Step Seven
18.
... began to
feel humility as something more ...
12&12 p.72,
Step Seven
It was only at the end of a long road, marked by successive defeats and humiliations, and the final crushing of our self-sufficiency, that we
began to feel humility as something more than a condition of groveling despair.
19.
... began to
feel like those who had ...
BB p.53,
We Agnostics
When others showed us that
"God-sufficiency" worked with them, we began to
feel like those who had insisted the
Wrights would never fly.
20.
... began to
fortify my beer with straight ...
BB p.178,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
It then occurred to me that after one was all smelled up with beer nobody could tell what had been drunk, so I
began to fortify my beer with straight alcohol.
21.
... began to
get over the idea that ...
12&12 p.75,
Step Seven
We began to get over the idea that the Higher Power was a sort of bush-league pinch hitter, to be called upon only in an emergency.
22.
... began to
get the feeling that we ...
12&12 p.57,
Step Five
This vital Step was also the means by which we began to get the feeling that we could be forgiven, no matter what we had thought
or done.
23.
... began to
happen.
BB xvii,
Foreword to Second Edition
24.
... began to
have its way with us.
12&12 p.29,
Step Two
25.
... began to
hold meetings which were open ...
12&12 p.186,
Tradition Twelve
Consequently, many groups began to hold meetings which were open to interested friends and the public, so
that the average citizen
could see for himself just what A.A. was all about.
26.
... began to
hum.
12&12 p.148,
Tradition Four
27.
... began to
infiltrate my life.
12&12 p.27,
Step Two
28.
... began to
listen while I tried to ...
12&12 p.153,
Tradition Five
But as he calmed down, he
began to listen while I tried to show him that humility was
the main key to sobriety.
29.
... began to
look as though religious people ...
BB p.11,
Bill's Story
30.
... began to
look easier.
12&12 p.48,
Step Four
31.
... began to
lose our fear of today, ...
BB p.63,
How It Works
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.
32.
... began to
publicly whoop up the merits ...
12&12 p.156,
Tradition Six
A.A. groups had their fling at education, and
when they began to publicly whoop up the merits of this or that brand, people became confused.
33.
... began to
pursue the spiritual remedy for ...
BB xvi,
Foreword to Second Edition
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.
34.
... began to
receive requests for A.A. speakers ...
12&12 p.186,
Tradition Twelve
Soon, groups began to receive requests for A.A. speakers to appear before civic organizations, church
groups, and medical societies.
35.
... began to
recognize their alcoholism.
12&12 p.23,
Step One
Alcoholics who still
had their health, their families, their jobs, and even two cars in the garage, began to recognize their alcoholism.
36.
... began to
return as time passed.
BB xx,
Foreword to Second Edition
37.
... began to
run rest homes and farms ...
12&12 p.167,
Tradition Eight
Even greater furors were provoked when
A.A. members began to run rest homes and farms for alcoholics, when
some hired out to corporations as personnel men in charge of the alcoholic problem in industry, when
some became nurses on alcoholic wards, when others entered the field of alcohol education.
38.
... began to
see that the world and ...
BB p.66,
How It Works
39.
... began to
see the desirability of doing ...
BB p.116,
To Wives
As our husbands began to
apply spiritual principles in their lives,
we began to see the desirability of doing so
too.
40.
... began to
speak.
12&12 p.137,
Tradition Two
41.
... began to
suspect how much trouble self-delusion ...
12&12 p.58,
Step Five
42.
... began to
talk of God."
12&12 p.28,
Step Two
Relieved of the alcohol
obsession, their lives
unaccountably transformed, they came to
believe in a Higher Power, and most of them began to
talk of God."
43.
... began to
tell me of the idea ...
12&12 p.136,
Tradition Two
Three years ago, when my head doctor, Silkworth, began to tell me of the idea of helping drunks by spirituality,
I thought it was crackpot stuff, but I've changed my mind.
44.
... began to
waken very early in the ...
BB p.5,
Bill's Story
45.
... began to
wonder, for such an appalling ...
BB p.5,
Bill's Story
46.
... began to
wonder if I had not ...
BB p.40,
More About Alcoholism
I had no trouble refusing drinks, and began to wonder if I had not been
making too hard work of a simple matter.
47.
... began to
work as a salesman for ...
BB p.35,
More About Alcoholism
His family was re-assembled, and he began to
work as a salesman for the
business he had lost through drinking.
48.
... began to
work in a department store, ...
BB p.4,
Bill's Story
Passages from the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous
and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
are reprinted with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.
The A.A. Preamble, copyright ©
The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., is reprinted with permission.
Permission to reprint does not in any way imply affiliation with or
endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous or The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.
Copyright © 2005-2012, Recovery Press LLC; All Rights Reserved.