"There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot take a drink."
The Doctor's Opinion

"It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would!"

"The real significance of my experience in the Cathedral burst upon me. For a brief moment, I had needed and wanted God. There had been a humble willingness to have Him with me--and He came. But soon the sense of His presence had been blotted out by worldly clamors, mostly those within myself."
Page 12-3, Bill's Story

"I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch. I have not had a drink since...

"We [Bill and Ebby] made a list of people I had hurt or toward whom I felt resentment. I expressed my entire willingness to approach these individuals, admitting my wrong."
Page 13, Bill's Story

"...[W]e had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help. This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort."
Page 25-6, There is a Solution

"But this man [Roland H.] still lives, and is a free man. He does not need a bodyguard nor is he confined. He can go anywhere on this earth where other free men may go without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude."
Page 27, There is a solution

"If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try."
Page 28, There is a Solution

"Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people."
Page 30, More About Alcoholism

"We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness tp believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God."
Page 46, We Agnostics

"We needed to ask ourselves but one question. 'Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?' As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way."
Page 47, We Agnostics

"A sudden spiritual experience happens to a former non-believer in the hospital, and removes his alcoholic problem: "What is this but a miracle of healing? Circumstances made him willing to believe."
Page 57, We Agnostics

"No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints.The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines."
Page 59, How It Works

"Whatever our ideal turns out to be, we must be willing to grow toward it. We must be willing to make amends where we have done harm, provided that we do not bring about still more harm in so doing. In other words, we treat sex as we would any other problem. in meditation, we ask God what we should do about ea ch specific matter. The right answer will come, if we want it."
Page 69, Step Four

"If we can answer to our satisfaction, we then look at Step Six. W e have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can He now take them all--every one? If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.

"When ready, we say something like this: 'My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here , to do your bidding. Amen."' We have then completed Step Seven."
Page 76, Into Action, Steps Six and Seven

"Now we need more action, without which we find that 'Faith without works is dead.' Let's look at steps eight and nine. We have a list of all persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends. We made it when we took inventory. We subjected ourselves to a drastic self-appraisal. Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the past. We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves. If we haven't the will to do this, we ask until it comes. Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.
Page 76, Into Action, Steps Eight and Nine

"A man we know had remarried. Because of resentment and drinking, he had not paid alimony to his first wife. She was furious. She went to court and go t an order for his arrest...It would have been impressive heroics if he had walked up to the Judge and said, 'Here I am.'

"We thought he ought to be willing to do that if necessary, but if he were in jail he could provide nothing for either family... He said he was perfectly willing to go to jail if she insisted. Of course she did not, and the whole situation has long since been adjusted."
Page 79, Into Action, Steps Eight and Nine

"The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles."
Page 93,Working With Others

"Drinkers like to help other drinkers. Your husband may be willing to talk to one of them[a way of interesting him in the subject of alcoholism]."
Page 112, To Wives

"If you both show a willingness to remedy your own defects, there will be little need to criticize each other."
Page 118, To Wives

"Henry Ford once made a wise remark to the effect that experience is the thing of supreme value is life. That is true only if one is w illing to turn the past to good account. We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and convert them into assets...

"We think each family which has been relieved owes something to those who have not, and when the occasion requires, each member of it should be only too willing to bring former mistakes, no matter how grievous, outof their hiding places."
Page 124, The Family Afterward

"After your man has gone along without drinking for a few months, you may be able to make use of his services with other employees who are giving you the alcoholic run-around--provided, of course, they are willing to have a third party in the picture."
Page 146, To Emplyer

"We have shown how we got out from under. You say, 'Yes, I'm willing.' "
Page 152, A Vision For You

"The practical answer is that since these things have happened among us, they can happen with you. Should you wish them above all else, and be willing to make use of our experience, we are sure they will come. The age of miracles is still with us. Our own recovery proves that!"
Page 153, A Vision For You

"On the third day the lawyer [Bill D., AA Number Three] gave his life to the care and direction of his Creator, and said he was perfectly willing to do anything necessary."
Page 158, A Vision For You

"They shared their homes, their slender resources, and gladly devoted their spare hours to fellow-sufferers. They were willing, by day or night, to place a new man in the hospital and visit him afterward."
Page 159, A Vision For You

"Every few days this doctor [Dr Silkworth] suggests our approach to one of his patients. Understanding our work, he can do this with an eye to selecting those who are willing and able to recover on a spiritual basis."
Page 162, A Vision For You

"We know what you are thinking. You are saying to yourself: 'I'm jittery and alone. I couldn't do that.' But you can. You forget that you have just now tapped a source of power much greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing, what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience and labor."
Page 163, A Vision For You

12 & 12:

"Practicing Step Three is like the opening of a door which to all appearances is still closed and locked. All we need is a key, and the decision to swing the door open. There is only one key, and it is called willingness. Once unlocked by willingness, the door opens almost of itself..."
Page 34, Step Three

"We can further add that a beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness."

"Every man and woman who has joined A.A. and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step Three. Isn't it true that in all matters touching upon alcohol, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of Alcoholics Anonymous? ...Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own will and one's own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A. Any willing newcomer feels sure A.A. is the only safe harbor for the foundering vessel he has become. Now if this is not turning one's will and life over to a newfound Providence, then what is it?"
Page 35, Step Three

"So how, exactly, can the willing person continue to turn his will and his life over to the Higher Power? He made a beginning, we have seen, when he commenced to rely upon A.A. for the solution of his alcohol problem."
Page 39, Step Three

"All by himself, and in the light of his own circumstances, he needs to develop the quality of willingness. When he acquires willingness, he is the only one who can make the decision to exert himself. Trying to do this is an act of his own will. All of the Twelve Steps require sustained and personal exertion to conform to their principles and so, we trust, to God's will."
Page 40, Step Three

"Where other people were concerned, we had to drop the word "blame" from our speech and thought. This required great willingness even to begin."
Page 47, Step Four

"Once we have a complete willingness to take inventory, and exert ourselves to do the job thoroughly, a wonderful light falls upon this foggy scene. As we persist, a brand-new kind of confidence is born, and the sense of relief at finally facing ourselves is indescribable."
Page 49-50, Step Four

"...unless he [the newcomer] is now willing to work hard at the elimination of the worst of these defects, both sobriety and peace of mind will still elude him; that all the faulty foundation of his life will have to be torn out and built anew on bedrock. Now willing to commence the search for his own defects, he will ask, "Just how do I go about this? how do I take inventory of myself?"
Page 50, Step Four

"If I am unable to change the present state of affairs, am I willing to take the measures necessary to shape my life to conditions as they are?"
Page 52, Step Four

"Therefore, thoroughness ought to be the watchword when taking inventory. In this connection, it is wise to write out our questions and answers. It will be an aid to clear thinking and honest appraisal. It will be the first tangible evidence of our complete willingness to move forward."
Page 53, Step Four

"It seems plain that the grace of God will not enter to expel our destructive obsessions until we are willing to try this."
Page 57, Step Five

"Only by discussing ourselves, holding back nothing, only by being willing to take advice and accept direction could we set foot on the road to straight thinking, solid honesty, and genuine humility."
Page 59, Step Five

"Until we actually sit down and talk aloud about what we have so long hidden, our willingness to clean house is still largely theoretical. When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God."
Page 60, Step Five

"The real tests of the situation are your own willingness to confide and your full confidence in the one with whom you share your first accurate self-survey."
Page 61, Step Five

" 'This is the Step that separates the men from the boys.' So declares a well-loved clergyman who happens to be one of A.A.'s greatest friends. He goes on to explain that any person capable of enough willingness and honesty to try repeatedly Step Six on all his faults--without any reservations whatever--has indeed come a long way spiritually, and is therefore entitled to be called a man who is sincerely trying to grow in the image and likeness of his own Creator."

"'I simply couldn't stop drinking, and no human being could seem to do the job for me. But when I became willing to clean house and then asked a Higher Power, God as I understood Him, to give me release, my obsession to drink vanished. It was lifted right out of me.'"
Page 63, Step Six

"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."
Page 65, Step Six

"Looking again at those defects we are still unwilling to give up, we ought to erase the hard-and-fast lines that we have drawn."
Page 68-9, Step Six

"Let's dispose of what appears to be a hazardous open end we have left. It is suggested that we ought to become entirely willing to aim toward perfection. We note that some delay, however, might be pardoned."
Page 69, Step Six

"To get completely away from our aversion to the idea of being humble, to gain a vision of humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to be willing to work for humility as something to be desired for itself, takes most of us a long, long time."
Page 72, Step Seven

"How can we possibly summon the resolution and the willingness to get rid of such overwhelming compulsions and desires?"
Page 73, Step Seven

"But when we have taken a square look at some of these defects, have discussed them with another, and have become willing to have them removed, our thinking about humility commences to have a wider meaning."
Page 74, Step Seven

"The whole emphasis of Step Seven is on humility. It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
Page 76, Step Seven

"It may be unwise at this stage to rehash certain harrowing episodes. Good judgment will suggest that we ought to take our time. While we may be quite willing to reveal the very worst, we must be sure to remember that we cannot buy our own peace of mind at the expense of others."
Page 84, Step Nine

"Of course, there is no pat answer which can fit all such dilemmas. But all of them do require a complete willingness to make amends as fast and as far as may be possible in a given set of conditions."
Page 87, Step Nine

"In all these situations [when disturbed] we need self-restraint, honest analysis of what is involved, a willingness to admit when the fault is ours, and an equal willingness to forgive when the fault is elsewhere."
Page 90, Step Ten

""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."
Page 95, Step Ten

"Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers." [Referring to the St Francis Prayer]
Page 99, Step Eleven

"Can we transform these calamities into assets, sources of growth and comfort to ourselves and those about us? Well, we surely have a chance if we switch from 'two-stepping' to 'twelve-stepping,' if we are willing to receive that grace of God which can sustain and strengthen us in any catastrophe."
Page 113, Step Twelve

"If we place instincts first, we have got the cart before the horse; we shall be pulled backward into disillusionment. But when we are willing to place spiritual growth first-- then and only then do we have a real chance."
Page 114, Step Twelve

"The alcoholic, realizing what his wife has endured, and now fully understanding how much he himself did to damage her and his children, nearly always takes up his marriage responsibilities with a willingness to repair what he can and to accept what he can't."
Page 119, Step Twelve