In A.A.'s pioneering time, none but the most desperate cases could swallow and digest this unpalatable truth.

"Well," says the newcomer, "I know you're telling me the truth.

To an amazing extent the facts of A.A. life confirm this ageless truth.

Once in a while he may tell the truth.

But this is only a half-truth.

Whether your employee likes it or not, he will learn the grim truth about alcoholism.

We hope the doctor will tell the patient the truth about his condition, whatever that happens to be.

We'd have to have outside help if we were surely to know and admit the truth about ourselves -- the help of God and another human being.

It is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade.

That being so you have swallowed and digested some big chunks of truth about yourself.

He begged the doctor to tell him the whole truth, and he got it.

We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic."

Then he asked for the grace to bring love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being he could.

The tragic truth is that if the man be a real alcoholic, the happy day may not arrive.

Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job -- wife or no wife -- we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.

The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the contrary that surrounds us in purely human affairs.

We have seldom told them the whole truth nor have we followed their advice.

And the truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took that first drink than you have.

We have told small tots that father was sick, which was much nearer the truth than we realized.

He may be an example of the truth that faith alone is insufficient.

"Lord, make me a channel of thy peace -- that where there is hatred, I may bring love -- that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness -- that where there is discord, I may bring harmony -- that where there is error, I may bring truth -- that where there is doubt, I may bring faith -- that where there is despair, I may bring hope -- that where there are shadows, I may bring light -- that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.