# Is "there but for the grace of God" in the Big Book?

**In short:**
- Not as the saying goes. "There but for the grace of God (go I)" isn't in the Big Book or anywhere else in our sources. The main text has "But for the grace of God" once, in Chapter 2, and it means something different ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)).
- On page 25 the words aren't about a member looking at someone worse off. They're about the hopeless drinker: "But for the grace of God, there would have been thousands more convincing demonstrations." ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)) Read with the sentences just before it, that most naturally means that without God's grace still more alcoholics would have borne out the facts the book has just given, by dying or going permanently insane ([pp. 24–25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/)).
- The short form was in use early: *Pass It On* (1984) says a sign reading "But for the Grace of God" hung over the mantel at the New York clubhouse in a 1941 photograph (*Pass It On*, 1984). "By the grace of God" also turns up in several members' stories (pp. 231, 511, 517, 533, 557), which are members' own words, not program text.

## What the search found

All our sources were searched for "there but for," "there, but for," "but for the grace," "grace of God" and "grace," with page breaks joined. Nothing matched "there but for" anywhere. In the Big Book's main text and front matter, "grace" appears once, on page 25; the other two hits are the word "disgrace" ([pp. 80](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-80/), 116).

## Page 25 in its passage

Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution," has just described the alcoholic who can't stop. He has "lost the power of choice in drink" ([p. 24](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/)), and "We are without defense against the first drink." ([p. 24](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/)) The thinking that goes with it ("It won't burn me this time, so here's how!" [p. 24](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/)) leads somewhere grim: "When this sort of thinking is fully established in an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless locked up, may die or go permanently insane." ([p. 24](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/))

The book says those facts have been confirmed by legions of alcoholics throughout history ([pp. 24–25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/)), and then: "But for the grace of God, there would have been thousands more convincing demonstrations." ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)) The "demonstrations" read most naturally as more alcoholics confirming those facts: more who died or went permanently insane ([p. 24](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/)). The next lines turn to the answer: "So many want to stop but cannot. There is a solution." ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/))

So in its place the phrase isn't a comparison between me and the drunk across the room. It says God's grace is why the hopeless story hasn't played out more often, and it leads straight into the solution: the members' spiritual experience ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)), "the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous" ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)). He "has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves." ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/))

What the popular saying adds (that the speaker could be in the other person's place, if not for God) is close to things the book does say in other words: that probably no human power could have relieved the alcoholism, and that God could and would if He were sought ([p. 60](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-60/)). But [p. 60](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-60/) is about the members' own alcoholism, not a comparison with anyone else, and the book doesn't put it in that phrase. See: *What are the "a, b, c" of [p. 60](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-60/) ("probably no human power… God could and would if He were sought")?*

## The short form in early A.A. (dated)

- **1941, the clubhouse sign.** *Pass It On* (1984), describing the photographs in the *Saturday Evening Post* article of March 1941, says one was taken at the 24th Street Clubhouse in New York, with "the slogan 'But for the Grace of God' hung prominently over the mantel" (*Pass It On*, 1984). That is a 1984 book's description of a 1941 photograph; it shows the words were on the wall, not what the members meant by them. See: *What was the Jack Alexander article (1941), and what did it do?*
- **Dr. Bob, 1948.** In his last major talk (Detroit, December 1948), printed in P-53, Dr. Bob said of the early members: "We had no humility, no sense of having received anything through the grace of our Heavenly Father." (P-53) And of himself: "It's only through God's grace that I did it." (P-53) His point is humility: he had no right "to get cocky about getting sober" (P-53). See: *What does the Big Book say humility is?*
- **Bill, 1957.** In *A.A. Comes of Age* Bill writes that at St. Louis in 1955 it was seen that many people "had helped, by the grace of God, to achieve A.A.'s purpose" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). He also puts words in Dr. Bob's mouth, "I was just another alcoholic trying to get along, under the grace of God." (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957), and says himself that these were "not in these exact words" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).
- **Bill's own release.** *Pass It On* (1984) says Bill wondered why he had received "such a gift of grace" when so many before him had died (*Pass It On*, 1984); his own answer there was his relation to Ebby, a fellow alcoholic who could identify with him (*Pass It On*, 1984).

## In members' stories

These are members telling their own experience (fourth edition, 2001, and *Experience, Strength and Hope*, 2003), not the program's teaching:

- A member who says that as long as he remembers one day in Washington, "by the grace of God as I understand Him, I will retain a happy sobriety" ([p. 231](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-231/)).
- Others credit the grace of God for their recovery or for a turn of events: [pp. 511](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-511/), 517, 533, 557.
- Close to the saying's meaning is an early member's story in *Experience, Strength and Hope* (2003): she could go out tonight, "but for the grace of God, and get drunk" (*Experience, Strength and Hope*, 2003). There, as in the saying, the grace of God stands between the speaker and the drink.

## What this means

"There but for the grace of God go I" isn't from A.A.'s books, though its short form was on an A.A. clubhouse wall by 1941 (*Pass It On*, 1984). The Big Book's one use of the words is about something larger: the deadly course of alcoholism, and God's grace as the reason it hasn't claimed even more, leading into "There is a solution" ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)). If the saying is used to mean that only God's help stands between the speaker and the drink, the book says something close about the members' own alcoholism: probably no human power could have relieved it, and God could and would if He were sought ([p. 60](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-60/)). It doesn't use the phrase, and it doesn't make the comparison with another drinker.

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution" ([pp. 24–26](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-24/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt2.pdf
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" ([p. 60](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-60/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- The full Big Book, *A.A. Comes of Age*, *Pass It On* and P-53: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| All our sources (searched): Big Book, pamphlets, history, stories, service | — | various |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapters 2, 5 | 24–25, 60 | 1939 |
| Personal stories, Parts I and III | 231, 511, 517, 533, 557 | fourth edition (2001) |
| P-53, Dr. Bob's last major talk | — | December 1948 (pamphlet © 2017) |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* | — | 1957 |
| *Pass It On* | — | 1984 |
| *Experience, Strength and Hope* | — | 2003 |

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53 and* A.A. Comes of Age *are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; Dr. Bob's 1948 talk in P-53 is © AA Grapevine, Inc.*