In the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix II - Spiritual Experience (4th ed. pg. 568), contains a now-famous quote attributed to Herbert Spencer:

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance — that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

A recent article entitled "The Survival of a Fitting Quotation" By Michael StGeorge may be of great interest to those who have heard of doubt that Herbert Spencer ever said or wrote that now-famous quote published in twenty million copies of Alcoholics Anonymous. See http://www.geocities.com/fitquotation/ for the web version of the article.

For some students of the Big Book, the attribution of the quote is not so important as the message. Still, it's likely to help you win a round of Trivial Pursuit at your next meeting after the meeting.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was a British philosopher who attempted to apply the theory of evolution to philosophy and ethics in his series Synthetic Philosophy (1855-1893).

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• The quotation ascribed to Herbert Spencer