Time & Perspective Quote by Bob Hope

Luck is the story we tell when we want the applause without the audit. Bob Hope’s line snaps that comforting myth in half, then tapes it back together with a punchline. “I’ve always been in the right place and time” sounds like the classic showbiz fairy tale: a career guided by fate, a man who just happened to be there when the spotlight swung around. Then comes the correction - “Of course, I steered myself there” - which turns passive good fortune into active navigation. The joke lands because it performs a reversal: the first clause invites you to roll your eyes at celebrity self-mythology, the second admits the unglamorous truth that success is often logistics, hustle, and strategy.

Hope’s specific intent is to claim agency without sounding arrogant. A straight declaration - “I made my own breaks” - would read as chest-thumping. By staging it as a wink, he gets to own his ambition while keeping the room on his side. That’s classic Hope: genial, self-aware, and slightly opportunistic in the way a great entertainer has to be.

The subtext is sharper: “right place and time” is not an accident; it’s a skill. Hope’s century-long career was built on adapting formats (vaudeville to radio to TV), courting mass audiences, and positioning himself close to power and patriotism through USO tours. He’s not denying luck; he’s puncturing the idea that luck is innocent. In show business - and in American culture more broadly - timing is currency, and he’s admitting he learned how to spend it.