What do the last lines of the Big Book say ("suggestive only," "we know only a little," "the Road of Happy Destiny")?
In short:
- The last lines are on page 164, the end of Chapter 11, "A Vision for You," and of the 1939 main text. They're written to a reader who may be on his own, with no A.A. group nearby and only the book in his hand (pp. 162–164).
- "Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little." (p. 164) The next sentence: "God will constantly disclose more to you and to us." (p. 164) Just before, the reader is told that "your real reliance is always upon Him" (p. 164).
- The same paragraph goes straight to action: ask God each morning "what you can do each day for the man who is still sick" (p. 164), and get your own house in order, because "obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got" (p. 164). The final paragraph is four plain instructions and a farewell on "the Road of Happy Destiny" (p. 164).
- So the context confirms that the book claims no final authority, and complicates using "suggestive only" to mean its directions matter little: in place, the phrase is humility about how much the writers know, set right beside the book's last and most direct instructions.
Who the ending is written to
The last pages of Chapter 11 picture a reader alone: - "Some day we hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find a Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination." (p. 162) - "Thus we grow. And so can you" (p. 162), even if you are only one man with the book in your hand (pp. 162–163). "We believe and hope it contains all you will need to begin." (p. 163) - The reader thinks he's jittery and alone and couldn't do it. But he has "tapped a source of power much greater than yourself" (p. 163), and to repeat what the writers did "is only a matter of willingness, patience and labor" (p. 163). - A 1939 example follows: one member in a new city, a psychiatrist willing to test the approach, and the prospect that there "will be no stopping until everyone in that town has had his opportunity to recover—if he can and will" (p. 164). - The reader worries he won't have contact with the writers. "We cannot be sure. God will determine that" (p. 164). "He will show you how to create the fellowship you crave." (p. 164)
The last two paragraphs
The first (p. 164) sets the book's limits and then gives the reader a daily task: - The book is "suggestive only," and the writers "know only a little" (p. 164). - God will show more, to the reader and to the writers. - Ask in morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. "The answers will come, if your own house is in order." (p. 164) - You can't pass on what you don't have. "See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others." (p. 164) "This is the Great Fact for us." (p. 164)
The last (p. 164) is four short instructions and a farewell: 1. "Abandon yourself to God as you understand God." (p. 164) 2. "Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows." (p. 164) 3. "Clear away the wreckage of your past." (p. 164) 4. "Give freely of what you find and join us." (p. 164)
"We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny." (p. 164) "May God bless you and keep you—until then." (p. 164)
The book doesn't label them, but the four instructions follow the order of the Steps: turning to God, admitting faults, setting right the past, and giving to others.
"Suggestive only," in place
The words mean what they say: the book doesn't present itself as law. That fits the way it introduces the Steps, as "suggested as a program of recovery" (p. 59). What the setting adds is what stands next to it. The very next sentences say the writers know only a little and that more will be shown, so the phrase sits with an admission about the limits of their knowledge. And it's followed within a few lines by the book's most direct sentences, written as instructions. Both are on the page, and the page needs both. For how the book handles "suggested" and "must" together, see Are the Steps rules or suggestions?
Does the context change the reading?
It complicates it. "Suggestive only" and "we know only a little" are true to the book: it claims no final authority and expects more to be learned. Quoted alone, though, they can be made to mean the book's directions are loose. In place, they're the writers' humility, set in a closing that sends the reader to help "the man who is still sick" (p. 164) and to join the fellowship on the Road of Happy Destiny.
Read it yourself
- Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" (pp. 151–164), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt11.pdf
- Related: Are the Steps rules or suggestions? · How did A.A. grow from two people? · Why was the Big Book written, and when?
- The full book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is sold by A.A. World Services at https://onlineliterature.aa.org.
Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" | 162–164 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 5, "How It Works" | 59 | 1939 |
Page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). The Preface says the program chapters have been "left largely untouched" since 1939 (p. xi). The footnotes on pp. 161 and 162 that begin "Written in 1939" were added later.
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.