That one cannot have one's cake and eat it too is a popular, and correctly quoted English idiomatic proverb or figure of speech. The proverb means the same as "One can be in possession of one's cake, but is not allowed to eat it." This may also indicate having or wanting more than one can handle or deserve, or trying to have two incompatible things. The proverb's meaning is similar to the phrases, "you can't have it both ways" and "you can't have the best of both worlds." Conversely, in the positive sense, it would refer to "having it both ways" or "having the best of both worlds."
This concept, known as opportunity cost, is one of the most important economic concepts.
Although this saying is a commonly accepted idiom, it is flawed in its grammatical logic. The act of eating a cake must first involve possession of the cake, therefore the only way to eat a cake is to first have it. Regardless of this logical flaw, the phrase is still popular and is regarded as socially acceptable and understood.
Read more about Have One's Cake And Eat It Too: History, Literal Meaning, Other Languages
Famous quotes containing the words cake and/or eat:
“We had hardly got out of the streets of Bangor before I began to be exhilarated by the sight of the wild fir and spruce tops, and those of other primitive evergreens, peering through the mist in the horizon. It was like the sight and odor of cake to a schoolboy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“SWEENEY:
Nothing to eat but the fruit as it grows.
Nothing to see but the palmtrees one way
And the sea the other way,
Nothing to hear but the sound of the surf.
Nothing at all but three things
DORIS: What things?
SWEENEY: Birth, and copulation, and death.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)