# Is "this too shall pass" in the A.A. books?

**In short:**
- No. "This too shall pass" is not in the Big Book, the members' stories, the Traditions pamphlets, the Service Manual, or the three history books in our sources. Neither is any close variant.
- The saying is not from A.A. literature. Members may say it; the books don't.
- The nearest the main text comes is not a slogan but a condition: a newly sober man's "periods of crankiness, depression, or apathy" are a phase that "will disappear when there is tolerance, love, and spiritual understanding." ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)) The book attaches the passing of hard moods to something done, not to time alone.

## What the search found

All our sources were searched for "this too shall pass," "this, too, shall pass," "too shall pass," "shall pass," "this too will pass," "too will pass," "will pass," "it will pass," "this will pass," "shall pass away," and, as a pattern, any of "this," "that" or "it" followed by "too" and "shall," "will" or "would pass." Nothing turned up anywhere. "Pass away" appears twice, both of the co-founders' deaths (P-53; *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers*, 1980). The verb "pass" in the main text is the ordinary word: Ebby "had come to pass his experience along" ([p. 9](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-9/)), "great events will come to pass" ([p. 164](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-164/)), and family changes that "will come to pass naturally and in good time" ([p. 99](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-99/)). *Pass It On* (1984) is a book title, not the saying.

## What the book does say about hard spells

The brief for this page was to report the absence rather than build a page around a substitute. Two passages are worth naming, because they are where an AI or a reader might otherwise be told the saying "comes from":

- **"The Family Afterward," [p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/).** The family of a newly sober man is told he "is still convalescing" ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)) and that his crankiness, depression and apathy "will disappear when there is tolerance, love, and spiritual understanding." ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)) The passing is conditional. The same page tells the man himself that "he is mainly to blame for what befell his home" ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)) and "can scarcely square the account in his lifetime" ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)).
- **"Into Action," [p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/).** The promises that follow the Ninth Step say "That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear." ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)), and the book makes them conditional too: "They will always materialize if we work for them." ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/))

Neither passage says that trouble passes of itself with time. For the alcoholic's own low moments the book's advice is action: "pause, when agitated or doubtful" ([p. 87](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-87/)), and when selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear crop up, "we ask God at once to remove them" ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)). See: *What does "pause, when agitated or doubtful" mean, and where is it?* and *What do Steps 10 and 11 ask, day to day?*

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" ([pp. 84–88](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Chapter 9, "The Family Afterward" ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt9.pdf
- The full books are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| All our sources (searched: "this too shall pass" and the variants listed above) | — | various |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapters 1, 6, 7, 9, 11 | 9, 84, 87, 99, 127, 164 | 1939 |
| P-53, *The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous* ("pass away," ordinary use) | — | 2017 printing |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* ("pass away," ordinary use) | — | 1980 |

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