Alex Trebek quotes: these sentences will make you smarter. What are the Jeopardy! host’s best quotes? That’s correct, for $200.
“Be all that you can be.”
“The secret to happiness, of course, is not getting what you want; it’s wanting what you get.”
“Have you ever met a successful person who wasn’t restless – who was satisfied with where he or she was in life? They want new challenges. They want to get up and go… and that’s one of the reasons they’re successful.”
“When something is important enough to you, you do it.”
“A good education and a kind heart will get you through life in pretty good shape.”
“We are all experts in our own little niches.”
“Don’t minimize the importance of luck in determining life’s course.”
“It’s very important in life to know when to shut up. You should not be afraid of silence.”
“Learning something new is fun.”
“Take your job seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.”
“It’s just as easy to be nice as it is to be unpleasant, and the rewards are far greater.”
“Don’t tell me what you believe in. I’ll observe how you behave and I will make my own determination.”
“My dad drank pretty heavily, and he never missed a day of work in his life. So I never looked at drinking as a serious problem, but drugs to me are a serious problem. I think it’s a generational thing. I think older people don’t feel as uncomfortable around drinkers as they do around dopers.”
“My dad didn’t throw out too many things. His basic philosophy was, ‘Don’t throw out something because someday it’ll come in handy.’ And it’s true. I mean, I have weather stripping in there that’s older than you. Workmen come over and do stuff, and invariably they don’t have the right tools or the right part. I walk into my garage and come back with the part they need.”
“I’m curious about everything. Even subjects that don’t interest me.”
“If you can’t be in awe of Mother Nature, there’s something wrong with you.”
“I did everything – I did newscasts, I did sports, I did dramas.”
“The only reason I got into broadcasting was, I needed money to pay for my junior and senior years at college, and they hired me, those fools!”
“My job is to provide the atmosphere and assistance to the contestants to get them to perform at their very best. And if I’m successful doing that, I will be perceived as a nice guy, and the audience will think of me as being a bit of a star.”
“That’s really what a host is supposed to do. You are there to make players relaxed enough that they can demonstrate their skills. They’re the stars of the show. They’re the ones that the viewers are interested in seeing. You’re going to be there five days a week. Every week. Put the emphasis on the players.”
“The best part of the job is the 30 minutes I spend onstage with the contestants running the game. I do – I really do – enjoy talking to the audiences.”
“Winning affects people. It can sure bring changes in people’s lives. Some pay off student loans, some change careers, some start new businesses. I just don’t want winners to piss it away, because sometimes windfall earnings can make people go a little funny.”
“Viewers know that I have a weird sense of humor, but that I’m serious about the game.”
“When I finish as the host of Jeopardy! I’m going to go up to Taft in central California. They have a small college there that teaches you about oil drilling.”
“I have been approached and have turned down things. Just this past week I turned down an approach that was fairly significant in terms of money. I have accepted a few things in the past. I’m open. If it’s something that I feel comfortable doing. I’ve had people come to me and say, ‘I heard about your heart attack, would you be willing to do something for a drug company?'”
“I don’t gamble, because winning a hundred dollars doesn’t give me great pleasure. But losing a hundred dollars pisses me off.”
“But I have always been careful with money, not blowing it on frivolous stuff. I don’t go crazy buying clothing or anything like that. I tend to protect what I have, rather than invest it for big profits.”
“I believe that crashes are a golden opportunity to make money, because the American economy is always solid enough to rebound. I remember after the crash of 1987, I immediately started buying, and ended up with a lot of shares of companies like Coca-Cola.”
“My wife and I have all the money we need to live, and we can’t take it with us. So if there are groups in need, we try to help them.”
“Saying that I’ve thought about it doesn’t mean that I’m doing it.”
“I would’ve loved to have a role in the HBO series Deadwood. It was Shakespeare in the Old West.”
“I’m not a true wine connoisseur. I’m just a drinker.”
“I usually drive a Dodge Ram 1500, a half-ton pickup. I’m not a macho man because it doesn’t have a gun rack. It has a wine rack! Just so that I can drink while I drive. Actually, I’m driving my white Jaguar parked in the choicest reserved parking spot. I’m only driving the Jag today, because my wife has the truck.”
“Fatherhood? I love it. It introduced an element of fear into my life. When you’re a bachelor, you don’t give a sh*t. You can do anything. But when you become a father, you get scared about everything.”
“When you’re in your 30s and actively pursuing a career and a home life, a wife and children, you’re busy doing as opposed to busy thinking. As you get older, even as you don’t have as much time, I think you tend to think more and reflect more on what is happening in your own life.”
“My life is what it is, and I can’t change it. I can change the future, but I can’t do anything about the past.”
“I don’t spend any time whatsoever thinking about what might have been.”
“People say, ‘You look to be in great shape for your age,’ and I guess I am.”
“My life has been a quest for knowledge and understanding, and I am nowhere near having achieved that. And it doesn’t bother me in the least. I will die without having come up with the answers to many things in life.”
“There will come a time to retire, but as long as I’m having fun and not slowing down too much because of age, I’ll continue to do it.”
“I’m just enjoying what I’m doing, I’m happy to have a job. I like the show, I like the contestants, and it pays well.”
“[On giving money to his kids] We have trusts for them, but we don’t want to give everything to them. We want them to be able to fend for themselves and make their own way in the world. My son operates a Mexican restaurant in Harlem, and my daughter is going into real estate. So they are succeeding on their own – but I am their backstop if they need me.”
