Kenneth Beck > Kenneth's Quotes

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us. But it is clear that we make our own misery.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation "some fact of my life" unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous

“When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.”
― James R. Sherman, Rejection

“One day at a time.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous

“Definition of an alcoholic is an egomaniac with an inferiority complex”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“We sometimes hurt those we love because they need to be “taught a lesson,” when we really want to punish. We were depressed and complained we felt bad, when in fact we were mainly asking for sympathy and attention. This odd trait of mind and emotion, this perverse wish to hide a bad motive underneath a good one, permeates human affairs from top to bottom. This subtle and elusive kind of self-righteousness can underlie the smallest act or thought. Learning daily to spot, admit, and correct these flaws is the essence of character-building and good living. An honest regret for harms done, a genuine gratitude for blessings received, and a willingness to try for better things tomorrow will be the permanent assets we shall seek.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

“The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous

“First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't work.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“There is an island of opportunity in the middle of every difficulty.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“I simply had to believe in a Spirit of the Universe, who knew neither time nor limitation.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day “Thy will be done.” We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous

“How did people have conversations anyway? How did they meet and then begin to talk as if they had known each other for years?”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

“This too shall pass" has become my mantra on the LOW days, havin one, but the day is half done and though my two year old does'nt want to give up the tantrum, I can begin my day again any time I should so choose.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“It's simple, not necessarily easy but, the rewards are endless.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous

“Since most of us are born with an abundance of natural desires, it isn’t strange that we often let these far exceed their intended purpose. When they drive us blindly, or we willfully demand that they supply us with more satisfactions or pleasures than are possible or due us, that is the point at which we depart from the degree of perfection that God wishes for us here on earth. That is the measure of our character defects, or, if you wish, of our sins. If we ask, God will certainly forgive our derelictions. But in no case does He render us white as snow and keep us that way without our cooperation. That is something we are supposed to be willing to work toward ourselves. He asks only that we try as best we know how to make progress in the building of character.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

“Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks—drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery. On the other hand—and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand—once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous

“Selfishness, self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous

“That melting pot stuff was always more about what this country wanted to believe about itself than the way people really felt.”
― Wally Lamb We Are Water

“One of the greatest of human follies is that we think we know ourselves so well, that we know how we would act under any conditions, that we would under any circumstance 'do the right thing.' Well, as many have discovered, you don't really know what you'll do in the dark till the lights go out.”
― James Carlos Blake