"Why all this insistence that
every A.A. must hit bottom first? The answer is that few people will sincerely
try to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit bottom. For practicing
A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that
almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. Who wishes to be
rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and
make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let
alone meditation and prayer?"
1952, AAWS, Inc.;
Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg.
24