Quotes from Ken Jennings

Eratosthenes , the mapmaker who was the first man to accurately measure the size of the Earth, was a librarian.

Borders may divide us, but, paradoxically, they're also the places where we're nearest to one another.

The real cocktail party conversation would probably go something like this: "Actually, I have a degree in geography." "Geography? Wow, I'm terrible with maps. I bet YOU know all your state capitals, though!" (Geographer's smile freezes, left eye starts to twitch uncontrollably.)

The great thing about knowing stuff is that anyone can do it.

Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, has argued that geography seems less relevant than ever in a world where nonstate actors -- malleable entities like ethnicities, for example -- are as powerful and important as the ones with governments and borders. Where on a map can you point to al-Qaeda? Or Google, or Wal-Mart? Everywhere and nowhere.

There must be something innate about maps, about this one specific way of picturing our world and our relation to it, that charms us, calls to us, won't let us look anywhere else in the room if there's a map on the wall.

I pick up Dylan. He certainly takes after his father: about three-quarters of his body weight seems to be head, and three-quarters of that is ears.

Many cases of twentieth-century American map geekdom, it seems, began the same way that many twentieth-century Americans began: conceived in the backseats of Buicks

In his book Why Geography Matters, the geographer Harm de Blij argues that the West's three great challenges of our time—Islamist terrorism, global warming, and the rise of China—are all problems of geography. An informed citizenry has to understand place, not because place is more important than other kinds of knowledge but because it forms the foundation for so much other knowledge.

What are those bulb things you're slicing?" "You've never seen fennel? It looks like celery and tastes like licorice.

There were two problems with this idea. First, it led to crappy "virtual reality" movies like Virtuosity and The Lawnmower Man. And second, in the long run, it turned out to be totally wrong.

I feel about Flannery O'Connor the same way that terrible people feel about Ayn Rand.

In this country, we were not into detail. Europe developed detail." "Why do you think that is?" "Weather. The whole history of England consists of finding things to do out of the weather. Which tells you why Russia was even worse. That's why Russian novels have 182 characters: bad weather.

Trunk-or-treating, for those who don't know, is just like trick-or-treating, except with cars instead of houses, lame decorations instead of awesome ones, and no fun instead of fun.)

there probably isn't a marriage or a relationship or a friendship anywhere today that wasn't jump-started by trivia.

If you never open a map until you're lost, you're missing out on all the fun.

Your butt may like to sit, but your butt is not the boss of you! Say no to your butt.

In general your brain stretches out time when there's a lot going on. That's why time seems to pass more slowly in childhood than it does in adulthood—because kids are doing so many new things for the first time. If you want to have a longer-seeming life, that's the secret...Keep trying lots of new things, and enjoy each moment!

The commercial break before Final Jeopardy is usually the only time that the show stops tape. You're given as long as you want to do the math required to make your wager.

As a kid, I always assumed the know-it-alls on Jeopardy! were obviously the smartest people in America. If you were smart, that's how you showed it: by knowing all your state flowers and kings of Saxony. But what if Rob's right and that's a different, much shallower kind of intelligence? Is my mountain of flash cards all for naught?

Every day we forget stories. I saw a funny video about a cat on the Internet this morning, but when I tried to tell a friend about it, I suddenly had no idea how it ended.

It seems clear from these results that the purpose of most bullying is to secure status and avoid resistance of any kind. So bullies don't pick on a classmate in hopes of getting a reaction. Quite the contrary: they bully in hopes of getting no reaction at all.

I remember one of my last shows, the Final Jeopardy! clue was something like 'These two boys' names are top 10 boys' names in the U.S., they both end with the same letter, and they're both names of Jesus' apostles.' Now, obviously that's not a knowable fact.

When you make a decision, you need facts. If those facts are in your brain, they're at your fingertips. If they're all in Google somewhere, you may not make the right decision on the spur of the moment.