“Let us always love the best in others—and never fear their worst.”
― The Language of the Heart—Bill W.'s Grapevine Writings
― The Language of the Heart—Bill W.'s Grapevine Writings
“Most alcoholics owe money. We do not dodge our creditors. Telling them what we are trying to do, we make no bones about our drinking; they usually know it anyway, whether we think so or not. Nor are we afraid of disclosing our alcoholism on the theory it may cause financial harm. Approached in this way, the most ruthless creditor will sometimes surprise us. Arranging the best deal we can we let these people know we are sorry. Our drinking has made us slow to pay. We must lose our fear of creditors no matter how far we have to go, for we are liable to drink if we are afraid to face them.”
― Alcoholics Anonymous
― Alcoholics Anonymous
“Right Relationship With Life Itself Gerald May, a dear and now deceased friend of mine, said in his very wise book Addiction and Grace that addiction uses up our spiritual desire. It drains away our deepest and true desire, that inner flow and life force which makes us “long and pant for running streams” (Psalm 42). Spiritual desire is the drive that God put in us from the beginning, for total satisfaction, for home, for heaven, for divine union, and it just got displaced onto the wrong object. It has been a frequent experience of mine to find that many people in recovery often have a unique and very acute spiritual sense; more than most people, I would say. It just got frustrated early and aimed in a wrong direction. Wild need and desire took off before boundaries, strong identity, impulse control, and deep God experience were in place.2”
― Breathing Underwater
― Breathing Underwater
“Good-bye—if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. —AMBROSE BIERCE”
― Genius and Heroin: Creativity, Obsession and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages
― Genius and Heroin: Creativity, Obsession and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages
“the “politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organizing nothing better than legalized mass murder.”
― The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade
― The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade
Bret’s 2025 Year in Books
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