12 Step Quotes

• If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.

  Frank A. Clark

  Inspirational, Life, Inspiring

  302 Copy quote

• Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.474, Princeton University Press

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• You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Positive, Faith

  Mother Jones Magazine, Vol.16, No.3, p.77, May - June 1991.

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• Formula for failure: Try to please everybody.

  Herbert Bayard Swope

  Failure, Recovery, Trying

  21 Copy quote

• Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.

  Mark Twain

  Courage, Fear, Cancer

  73 Copy quote

• If you always do what you did, you'll always get what you got.

  Marian Diamond

  Change, Workout, Emotional

  33 Copy quote

• God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "How Obama's favorite theologian shaped his first year in office" by John Blake, www.cnn.com. February 5, 2010.

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• What goes around, comes around.

  Willie Nelson

  Karma, Respect, Revenge

  Willie Nelson, Turk Pipkin (2006). “The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart”, p.33, Penguin

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• If you don't know where you're going any road will do

  Lewis Carroll

  Baseball, Travel, Goals Dreams

  61 Copy quote

• What you think of me is none of my business.

  Larry Winget

  Inspirational, Business, Thinking

  Larry Winget (2008). “The Idiot Factor: The 10 Ways We Sabotage Our Life, Money, and Business”, p.104, Penguin

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• Get off the cross, we need the wood.

  Tori Amos

  Jesus, Recovery, Needs

  Song: Big Wheel, Album: American Doll Posse, 2007

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• We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves would restore us to sanity.

  Bill W.

  Believe, Alcohol, Sanity

  Alcoholics Anonymous (1939). The first two of the "Twelve Steps" that form the program of Alcoholics Anonymous to combat alcoholism.

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• If you find a path with no obstacles, it likely leads nowhere.

  Catherine DeVrye

  Motivation, Recovery, Path

  15 Copy quote

• While in the clinic, I discovered I had problems with concentration, motivation, attitude, and temper. I have found a new way of life through the clinic's program and a 12-step recovery plan.

  Albert Belle

  Motivation, Attitude, Recovery

  Albert Belle (1998). “Don't Call Me Joey: The Wit and Wisdom of Albert Belle”, p.15, ECW Press

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• I talk to people who go to rehab, and they get this AA book that they've got to read everyday - really thick book. They go through all these 12 steps and do all this and that. It's crazy how everybody can sit and talk about rehab but if I come to say Christ was my rehab, it's not cool to say that. ... For me that's my rehab. That's what happened with me and it's an amazing and powerful thing.

  Reginald Arvizu

  Powerful, Crazy, Book

  "Q&A: Korn bassist is off drugs and on to Christ". AP Chicago Interview, www.philstar.com. March 15, 2009.

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• I think we need a 12-step group for non-stop talkers. We're going to call it On and On Anon.

  Paula Poundstone

  Thinking, Groups, Needs

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• There's really only one true path to recovery that's using the 12 step program and finding a belief in something greater than yourself (spirituality).

  Nikki Sixx

  Recovery, Path, Steps

  9 Copy quote

• You know, there's a 12 step program for gambling. You should look into that. Twelve steps. Coyote laughed. I'll bet I can do it in six.

  Christopher Moore

  Gambling, Six, Steps

  4 Copy quote

• I'll go through all of [12 steps for people who say are traumatized by the election], but a sample: Volunteer to fight Islamaphobia. Join the ACLU. Donate to Planned Parenthood. Take down sexism and misogyny. Sort of all the stations of the cross of liberalism. Sort of all the stations of the cross of liberalism.

  Tucker Carlson

  Fighting, People, Volunteer

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• Non-mainstream people seem to balk at the idea of 12-step. A lot of us think 12-step recovery means sitting in a church basement full of Republicans and Christians who drink to much.

  Bucky Sinister

  Christian, Mean, Recovery

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I think 12-step programs really work, rehab really works, certain types of therapies and talking to other addicts really work. There are a lot of things that work - that isn't the problem. The problem is getting the addicts to say they're addicts. The problem is admitting it.

  Susan Cheever

  Thinking, Talking, Rehab

  Source: www.marieclaire.com

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• One of the 12 steps is to admit that you're powerless, but I think that's bullshit. I think it's important to empower yourself by facing the stuff that triggers you.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Thinking, Bullshit, Empowering

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I used to think, "I can't go to these meetings because they'll make me believe in God. Make me go to church." I knew it wasn't right for me before I ever tried it. I was suspicious of anything outside my realm of experience. That same kind of attitude carries over into 12-step programs, because they are programs. There's this feeling that you don't need this bullshit, you can quit on your own. People that don't know anything about it seem to have a better idea. They haven't even been.

  Bucky Sinister

  Attitude, Believe, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I'm always looking for context in which people tell stories. In "Fight Club" it's these support groups for dying people, and then in "Choke" it's 12-step recovery groups. In one novel it's artists' colonies, in another novel it's a diary form that submariners' wives typically keep so that when their husband comes back from serving on a submarine they have an accounting of their spouse's time. So I'm always looking for, number one, a non-fiction context - because you can tell a more outrageous story if you use a non-fiction form.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Husband, Recovery, Fighting

  "Chuck Palahnuik On 'Choke'". Interview with Cole Smithey, www.colesmithey.com. September 24, 2008.

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• The 12-step chocolate program: NEVER BE MORE THAN 12 STEPS AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE!

  Terry Moore

  Food, Yummy, Chocolate

  47 Copy quote