Bill Wilson Quotes

Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening? No, sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life - the one that did not work - for a new life that can and does work under any conditions whatever.

When I got sober, I thought giving up was saying goodbye to all the fun and all the sparkle, and it turned out to be just the opposite. That's when the sparkle started for me.

I got sober. I stopped killing myself with alcohol. I began to think: 'Wait a minute - if I can stop doing this, what are the possibilities?' And slowly it dawned on me that it was maybe worth the risk.

It's so weird that I went to rehab. I always said that I would die before I went to rehab. But I thought, 'I'm going to stay here tonight.' And I stayed there for a month. It was great.

I feel like I have a new life and I'm going to take full advantage of it.

I have a lot of lovely things in my life that I wasn't able to have before I got healed from my imbalanced life.

I found my feet in my 40s: got divorced at 40, two years of drinking, and then, at 42, I became sober. My 30s were the most boring phase.

Some of us are returning to sanity, because we're tired of the pain. We're in a hurry. No time to mess around.

We know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.

When a woman conceives her true self, a miracle occurs and life around her begins again.

My life off the court has changed. I'm feeling good inside, so I guess it shows on the outside too.

I had such a wonderful life before drugs and alcohol abuse. I've got that life back now and plan to keep it. Maybe I had to go through what I did to get to this point, to appreciate this life more.

If I were to try to identify a turning point I'd say that was it - getting clean.

Black Rock gives us all a chance to heal, to become ourselves.

The '90s were a time of building for me. Building a life that was sober, drained of harmful, wasteful excess and manufacturing in its place a family of my own.

It wasn't until I let go of the idea of the brass ring that it showed up, and fortunately for me, it coincided with getting clean.

Since I've quit drinking, I'm not sure I've found the good life, but I've certainly uncovered a better one.

It is completely surreal because two years ago I wasn't swimming, I was 10 kilos heavier and was on a completely different path in my life, I was still living in Sydney, I'm just so happy now.

My life has changed. I'm not walking around any more wishing I wasn't me, which was the case at one time.

I said, to hell with the whole thing, to hell with show business. I'm gonna make a new life for myself, and I got off drugs, completely kicked all that stuff.

When I met my wife, my whole life changed on a dime, really quickly and for the better.

In retrospect, I'm grateful for the break-up of my marriage because it forced me to deal with all the buried issues I probably wouldn't have otherwise faced. I'm a better, kinder, happier person today because of the spiritual and emotional growth I've experienced.

I got sober, and I got happy again.

Change doesn't happen often, but to a certain extent in some way, I think when you get into recovery and you stay there, you change.

I'm sober now and very happy.