Bill Wilson > Quotes

“To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.”
― Bill Wilson

“Indecision with the passing of time becomes decision.”
― Bill Wilson

“When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.

In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.

What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.

We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn’t work. You can easily see why.”
― Bill Wilson

“You can’t think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking.”
― Bill Wilson, Alcoholics Anonymous: The story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism : the Australian experience, commemorating 50 years of Alcoholics Anonymous in Australia

“For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong. – Bill W.”
― Bill W.

“Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the light,even though for the moment you do not see.”
― Bill Wilson

“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.”
― Bill Wilson

“I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion we can ever know.”
― Bill W.

“True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition is the profound desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God.”
― Bill Wilson

“To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world.”
― Bill Wilson

“Let us always love the best in others—and never fear their worst.”
― Bill Wilson, The Language of the Heart—Bill W.'s Grapevine Writings

“Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, although for the moment you do not see.”
― Bill Wilson

“If you look at your class as anything less than life or death, you do not deserve to be a teacher. If you walk into the classroom ten minutes late, week after week, you need to resign. You wouldn't come in late on your job all the time, but I venture to guess that some of you do it on Sunday.”
― Bill Wilson, Christianity in Crosshairs

“Let Go and Let God...”
― Bill Wilson

“Nothing can be more demoralizing than a clinging and abject dependance upon another human being. This often amounts to the demand for a degree of protection and love that no one could possibly satisfy. So our hoped-for protectors finally flee, and once more we are left alone - either to grow up or to disintegrate.”
― Bill W.

“To the world you may be one person, but to that one person you may be the world.”
― Bill Wilson

“The deception of others is almost always rooted in the deception of ourselves.”
― Bill W, As Bill Sees It: The A.A. Way of Life...Selected Writings of A.A.'s Co-Founder

“To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.”
― Bill Wilson

“Step One is about recognizing our brokenness.”
― Bill W., The Twelve Steps to Sobriety and the History of How it Works

“So we need to constantly scrutinize ourselves carefully, in order to make everlastingly certain that we shall always be strong enough and single-purposed enough from within, to relate ourselves rightly to the world without.”
― Bill Wilson, The Language of the Heart—Bill W.'s Grapevine Writings

“I’m more affected than ever by that sweet and powerful aura of the church; that marvelous spiritual essence flowing down by the centuries touches me as no other emanation does, but when I look at the authoritative layout, despite all the arguments in its favor, I still can’t warm up. No affirmative conviction comes.”
― Bill Wilson

“The willingness to grow is the essence of all spiritual development.”
― Bill W., As Bill Sees It: The A.A. Way of Life...Selected Writings of A.A.'s Co-Founder

“To the world you may be one person, to one person you may be the world.”
― Bill Wilson