enjoyable - the only way to go or eat cake! I know that it is an old saying - it's been referenced to forever! I would love for you to share - what it means to you - when someone says to "you can't have your cake and eat it too." Do you believe them and change your behvavior, goals, desires, or actions? Or do you continue on as you were before - knowing that you're going "to have your cake and eat it too?"
2006-07-19 14:57:37 · 18 answers · asked by twinklecomfort 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
what's the point of having my cake if I can't eat it?
2006-07-19 15:51:53 · answer #1 · answered by fourcolor4u2 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I believe a correct interpretation of this ill-conceived phrase is:
You can't have it both ways?
I guess the "cake" can represent anything, but what I think the phase is saying is that if you "eat" the "cake", the "cake" is gone. It's impossible to keep the "cake" in tact, and "eat" it at the same time.
Well, I don't know if I'd put too much stock in such a phrase, but unfortunately it does often seem to apply metaphoricly to many real life situations. I guess another way to say might be, if you had a dollar, you could choose to spend it or save it, but not both. So, either you hold onto the dollar, or you spend the dollar. But if you spend the dollar, you no longer have the dollar. So I guess you have to choose. Some people try to change or delay the effects of this principle, but I think in the long run, in most cases, you probably have to choose. But who knows? You could be the lucky one that figures out how to cheat this universal law!
2006-07-19 22:18:51 · answer #2 · answered by grlinwhite 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When I hear that, it's like somebody is telling me I can't have everything I want, that I can't go after everything I want, and that is a direct challenge. Why would I settle for less than everything? We only get one shot at life so why sit it out and be satisfied with what we can get? People have to constantly strive to have more, to be more, to do more or our lives become stagnant and we go no where. Not everyone has to eat their cake-they can sit it on the counter and be pleased that they have it, but not risk the toothache and calories that it will give them. As for me? I'm gonna eat all the cake I can in life, and keep buying new ones to devour. My dreams are everything to me, and I refuse to settle for less than I want.
2006-07-19 22:07:58 · answer #3 · answered by Jessi B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To wish to have one's cake and eat it too (sometimes eat one's cake and have it too) is to want more than one can handle or deserve, or to try to have two incompatible things. This is a popular English idiomatic proverb, or figure of speech.
The phrase's earliest recording is from 1546 as "wolde you bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?", alluding to the impossibility of eating your cake and still having it afterwards; the modern version (where the clauses are reversed) is a corruption which was first signaled in 1812.
Comedian George Carlin once critiqued this idiom by saying, "When people say, 'Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too.' What good is a cake you can't eat? What should I eat, someone else's cake instead?". Of course, in the original correct form (eat your cake and have it too), Carlin's critique does not apply.
So, in response, I can have my cake and eat it too. But once I eat it, I can't have it again.
2006-07-19 22:02:46 · answer #4 · answered by Ananke402 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why would I have cake and not eat it. should I let it go stale or give it away. It is a lousy saying
It's called not settling for second rate. Try it sometime. You might get somewhere in life
2006-07-19 22:03:00 · answer #5 · answered by billyandgaby 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Having your cake and eating it too is easy. It's the trick of eating your cake and having it too that'll get you in a pinch.
2006-07-19 22:02:36 · answer #6 · answered by theGODwatcher_ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think it is possible to really have your cake and it it too. To me it has always been a bad way of thinking of things. Such as being married and cheating, earning a living and still being on welfare, behind on your car payments and hiding your car, ETC.
2006-07-19 22:15:34 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
have you ever heard of "opportunity cost". you forego something to acquire another. let's say you have $20, and there's a pair shoes on sale for $20, yet its only monday and thats all the money you have for the week. what do you do?
things are limited in our world, so we have to make choices. therefore, the adage "you can't eat your cake and have it" really means you have to sacrifice something to achieve another thing. you rarely have it both ways. ciao my sista.
2006-07-20 03:18:54 · answer #8 · answered by chutzpah 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, I enjoy every last bite of my cake.
You don't think I'd let some money-monger, two-faced, Religious Charity Manipulating- Trying to trick me to help pay for their Brand New BMW's, tax-collecting, debt collecting, Closet Nazi Corporate Executives, Edna Bambrick advocates enjoy it do you?
LOL
2006-07-20 01:03:40 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Although not a fan of baked goods myself (I'd rather have my cake and not eat it), a friend of mine coined a saying in reference to his cheating ways. He often said "I can have my 'Kate' and 'Edith' too." True story. Point of interest, he stopped saying it after a shameful bout with crabs.
2006-07-19 23:49:38 · answer #10 · answered by robberynimble 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋