In my experience, and I have gotten to a place where I saw no point in maintaining sobriety (and sometimes didn't) I have learned that the tag lines don't keep me sober. Internalizing the tag lines, accepting them and making them a part of me, keeps me sober.
I said "I'm not going to drink again" many times, but had not internalized it. I used it like a magic spell, hoping that repeating it was going to keep me sober. And I got angry and wanted to say phooey to sobriety when saying the "right" things didn't work.
It wasn't until I truly got inside myself and totally accepted that drinking and drugging didn't work, and that I was living a life I didn't want...that I truly owned those tag lines to be reality in my life. No more magic spell, no more crossed fingers and hopeful wishes.
I have experienced getting and staying sober much like one experiences the death of someone close to them. All those same stages of grief.
Life got to the point where it all seemed hopeless and pointless and too painful. I lost so many things and people I loved and security, and nearly everything by which I identified myself. But still, inside I didn't want to identify myself as a dying alcoholic. I realized that those tag lines are about me. I read and read and read posts here and borrowed the hope of others, and allowed myself to believe that their experiences were true.
I had to internalize them, accept them on a deeper level that I had before, rock myself to sleep with them.