You can't have your cake and eat it too
Meaning: You can't enjoy two mutually exclusive things simultaneously.
Origin: The oldest known record is a 1538 letter from Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, to Thomas Cromwell, remarking that a man cannot have his cake and eat his cake. John Heywood's 1546 collection asks, "Would ye both eat your cake, and have your cake?" The older order — eat it and still have it — makes the impossibility clearer: once eaten, the cake is gone.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: On ne peut avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre (literally: You can't have the butter and the money for the butter)
- Spanish: No se puede estar en misa y repicando (literally: You can't be at mass and ringing the bells)
- Japanese: 二兎を追う者は一兎をも得ず (Nito wo ou mono wa itto wo mo ezu) (literally: He who chases two rabbits catches neither)
- German: Man kann nicht auf zwei Hochzeiten tanzen (literally: You can't dance at two weddings)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Better safe than sorry — It's wiser to be cautious than to take unnecessary risks.
- A rose by any other name would smell as sweet — The essence of something doesn't depend on what it's called.
- Kill two birds with one stone — Accomplish two tasks with a single action.
- Don't bite off more than you can chew — Don't take on more than you can handle.
- Every rose has its thorn — Even the best things have their drawbacks.
- All's well that ends well — A good outcome justifies the difficulties along the way.
From our idioms
- It's raining cats and dogs — It's raining extremely heavily.
- To have butterflies in your stomach — To feel nervous excitement.
- Bob's your uncle — And there you have it; simple as that.