You can’t have your cake and eat it

This proverbial saying is first found in John Heywood’s 1546 glossary A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue:

Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?

The meaning of many medieval proverbs isn’t clear – they depend on context and a knowledge of the use of language that is now difficult to decipher. However, ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too’ is unambiguous and meant the same to the Tudor court where it originated as it does to us.

Those living in the UK and of a certain age may remember the BBC radio show My Word, in which the comedy scriptwriters Frank Muir and Denis Norden were asked to make up stories about popular phrases. If memory server it was Frank Muir who told a tale of an eskimo paddling his canoe in the icy sea who decided to light a stove to keep warm. The canoe caught fire and sank, leading to the punch line “You can’t have your kayak and heat it too”.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink

You can’t get blood out of a stone

You can’t get blood out of a turnip

You can’t hold with the hare and run with the hounds

You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear

You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs

See also: the List of Proverbs.