Micawber principle

Meaning

Noun

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

Origin

• 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."