"You can't have your cake and eat it."
What's the point of having cake if you can't eat it? I mean, that sounds like a complete waste of time to me....omg!
So wheredid it come from and who agrees with me?
2006-07-08 20:59:01 · 11 answers · asked by Kismet 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
Actually, you left out an important word, at the end, too: You cannot have your cake and eat it, too. The saying makes perfect sense.
It is a saying about being unable to reconcile opposites or contradictions. It is also a saying about having to make a choice between two alternatives (and not being able to have both).
It cannot be both raining and not raining at the same time. You cannot have a reputation as a good person if you lie, cheat and steal. You cannot do well in school if all you do is play and goof off (though you could grow up to be president). You cannot have a big savings account if all you do is spend every cent you have (and usually don't have, by using credit). You cannot be married and single at the same time. You can eat you cake or you can keep it, but you cannot do both at the same time.
2006-07-08 21:16:00 · answer #1 · answered by Pandak 5 · 5⤊ 1⤋
I have no idea who came up with the saying but if you think about it the saying is true.. it just heard and not thought of
the meaning behind it is you cant have everything your way it is either.. or. you eat ya cake then it's gone.. you want the cake then don't eat it... and you get to keep it as long as you want it.
2006-07-09 04:12:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's, " You can't have your cake and eat it too." Which means...Normally, when you get something you want, you are giving up something else. Or, The thing you want, isn't all you thought it would be.
2006-07-09 04:08:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I disagree with you.
It means, you can't have your cake AND eat at the same time because, when you eat it, it's gone, how can you have it then when it's not there?
You either have it and look at it, or you just eat it and have it no more.
2006-07-09 04:05:19 · answer #4 · answered by Lizzyyyy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not sure where that came from. But it is about the same as the saying " They want the best of both worlds". Or The grass is Greener on the other side of the fence. Or "You cant always get what you want". Or "You dont know what you got til its gone".
2006-07-09 04:16:14 · answer #5 · answered by LadyKatt 2006 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
lol. true. it was prolly some old irish immigrant saying. u can't have a cake and eat it, u can have it and just look at it or something
2006-07-09 04:03:56 · answer #6 · answered by rockstar12321 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is it related to Marie-Antoinette who said to the starving poor, who didn't even have bread to eat, "Let them eat cake!"
2006-07-09 04:05:54 · answer #7 · answered by J9 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe that's just some poor grammar. Then somebody tried to preserve the first guy's dignity and respect by injecting meaning to it.
2006-07-09 04:05:42 · answer #8 · answered by Odin M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
agree - cake mmmmmmmmmm
I never quite understood what exactly that person meant
2006-07-09 04:04:06 · answer #9 · answered by Rika 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What is meant by the saying, is that you cannot have what you want exactly the way you want it, and on your terms.
I do not know where the saying comes from.
2006-07-09 04:04:55 · answer #10 · answered by mjcariati1971 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋