# How can I tell when a quote has been taken out of context?

**In short:**
- Look the quote up and read the whole passage it comes from: the whole chapter, the whole story or the whole talk. The Big Book is free on aa.org, so this takes minutes.
- Ask whether the rest of the passage points the same way as the quote. If the pages around it turn its meaning around, it has been taken out of context.
- Check who is speaking and when: the 1939 program text, a personal story, or a book written decades later.
- The clearest example is the first line of Chapter 7, "Working With Others," which is often quoted to mean "help others to keep yourself sober." The chapter's other fourteen pages say the aim is the other alcoholic's life.

## The worked example: the first line of Chapter 7

**The line, read alone.** Chapter 7 opens: "nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics" (p. 89). "It works when other activities fail." (p. 89). Lifted out by itself, that sounds like a reason to help others: it keeps *you* sober. Taught that way, Step Twelve becomes something you do for yourself.

**The same page.** Read to the bottom of p. 89 and the chapter has already named its subject, "Carry this message to other alcoholics!" (p. 89), and told you how to find drinkers who want to stop, through doctors, ministers and hospitals (p. 89). The page ends, after advising the reader to cooperate with doctors and ministers rather than criticize them: "To be helpful is our only aim." (p. 89).

**The whole chapter.** Read all fifteen pages (pp. 89–103) and the direction is plain:
- The man you help is "under no obligation to you" (p. 94), and he's asked to "place the welfare of other people ahead of his own" (p. 94).
- Don't stay too long with a man who isn't ready, because that "is to deny some other alcoholic an opportunity to live and be happy" (p. 96).
- Expect the work to cost you nights' sleep, interruptions to your business, sharing your money and your home, and trips to courts, hospitals and jails (p. 97).
- "Do not think of what you will get out of the occasion." (p. 102). "Think of what you can bring to it." (p. 102).

So the first line is true, and the book means it: the work does protect the helper. But it's a result, not the aim. Read whole, Chapter 7 is about rescuing the alcoholic who is still drinking. This page is laid out in full in *What does Step 12 really say?*

**The same thing, said again in 1939.** Chapter 11 says the same about the first Akron members: "Though they knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary." (Chapter 11, p. 159). "It was transcended by the happiness they found in giving themselves for others." (Chapter 11, p. 159). When a second passage in the same book confirms the reading of the whole, you can be more confident the lifted line was misleading.

## A second example: "Faith without works"

In "Bill's Story," the phrase "Faith without works was dead, he said." (p. 14) is often quoted as a general saying. The sentence just before it tells you what "works" meant to the friend who said it: "Particularly was it imperative to work with others as he had worked with me." (p. 14). The next lines say that an alcoholic who didn't work for others would drink again (pp. 14–15). In context, the "works" are work with other alcoholics.

## A third example: "Keep it simple"

Dr. Bob's 1950 Cleveland talk is usually remembered for one line about simplicity. *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (1980), which prints the whole talk, says so and adds: "But Dr. Bob said a good deal more than that" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The rest of the talk is about love, service, guarding the tongue, and never becoming too complacent to help the next alcoholic. See *When did Dr. Bob die, and what were his last words to A.A.?*

## A checklist
1. **Find the exact words and page.** If you can't find the quote in the book at all, it may be a misquote or a saying credited to A.A. that isn't in its literature.
2. **Read the whole unit:** the chapter, the story, the essay, or the talk. Start at its beginning.
3. **Read what's right before and after.** The sentence before often says what a word means, as with "works" on p. 14.
4. **Ask whether the rest agrees.** If later pages qualify or reverse the line, the line alone is misleading.
5. **Check who is speaking.** Program text (pp. 1–164), a member's personal story, and an editor's footnote are different kinds of evidence. So are a later book or pamphlet quoting an earlier one, or quoting a different book entirely.
6. **Check the date.** A 1939 passage and a 1980 retelling may not agree. See *Which A.A. books are oldest, and why does the date matter?*

## Why it matters

A long book gives anyone plenty of lines to choose from. A line taken from its pages without the pages around it can be made to support almost anything, including the opposite of what the book says. The defence is simple: read it whole, from A.A.'s own free copy.

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 7, *Working With Others* (pp. 89–103), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- Chapter 11, *A Vision for You* (pp. 151–164): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt11.pdf
- Chapter 1, *Bill's Story* (pp. 1–16): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt1.pdf
- Related: *What does Step 12 really say?* · *Is "Working With Others" about sponsorship?* · *Where can I read the Big Book free, from A.A. itself?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapter 7, "Working With Others" | 89–103 | 1939 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" | 159 | 1939 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapter 1, "Bill's Story" | 14–15 | 1939 |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* | — | 1980 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). The Preface says the program text, Chapters 1–11, "has been left largely untouched" since 1939 (p. xi).

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and* Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers *are © A.A. World Services, Inc.*