WAYS THE BIG BOOK DESCRIBES SOBRIETY
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page XXXI, paragraph 2, line 12
From a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment.
2
page XXXI, paragraph 4
His alcoholic problem was so complex, and his depression so great...he is as fine a specimen of manhood as one could wish to meet.
3
page 8, paragraph 2, line 9
...catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes.
4
page 11, paragraph 6
...my friend was much more than inwardly reorganized. He was on a different footing. His roots grasped a new soil.
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page 12, paragraph 5, line 3
Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view.
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page 13, paragraph 5
...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.
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page 14, paragraph 2
These were revolutionary and drastic proposals, but the moment I fully accepted them, the effect was electric. There was a sense of victory, followed by such a peace and serenity as I had never known. There was utter confidence. I felt lifted up, as though the great clean wind of a mountain top blew through and through.
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page 15, paragraph 2
We commenced to make many fast friends and a fellowship has grown up among us of which it is a wonderful thing to feel a part. The joy of living we really have, even under pressure and difficulty. 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. I have seen men come out of asylums and resume a vital place in the lives of their families and communities. Business and professional men have regained their standing. There is scarcely any form of trouble and misery which has not been overcome among us.
9
page 16, paragraph 2
There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all.
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page 16, paragraph 3
Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now.
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page 42, paragraph 3, line 2
I have since been brought into a way of living infinitely more satisfying and, I hope, more useful than the life I lived before. 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. I would not go back to it even if I could."
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page 46, paragraph 2, line 7
...we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction...
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page 50, paragraph 4, line 5
...there has been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking. In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of direction flowed into them.
14
page 83, paragraph 4, line 3
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
15
page 84, paragraph 3, line 10
We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality--safe and protected.
16
page 85, paragraph 2, line 4
...we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense.
17
page 89, paragraph 2
Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends...
18
page 100, paragraph 1, line 2
...remarkable things will happen. 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.
19
page 100, paragraph 1, line 7
...you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances!
20
page 119, paragraph 2, line 7
...will awaken to a new sense of responsibility for others.
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page 119, paragraph 2, line 10
Inevitably your lives will be fuller for doing so. You will lose the old life to find one much better.
22
page 152, paragraph 2, line 3
...you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead.
23
page 152, paragraph 4, line 10
...you will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. You will learn the full meaning of "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
24
page 153
...become happy, respected, and useful once more.