# Micawber principle

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. The claim that something good will turn up, especially when used to justify optimism.
2. The claim that financial surplus is success and debt is failure.

## Etymology
From the Dickens character Wilkins Micawber, noted for his inability to work his way out of poverty. Two of his enunciations have become elevated to "principles":
* "Something will turn up."
* "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/micawber-principle