phrase

• You can't enjoy both of two desirable but mutually exclusive alternatives.

  ‘the king wanted to have his cake and eat it—to marry Mrs Simpson and to remain on the throne’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The theory must sound good to corporate execs, but even in business you can't have your cake and eat it.’
  • ‘I think you have just found out that you can't have your cake and eat it too!’
  • ‘Apparently they're right you can't have your cake and eat it too.’
  • ‘My feeling is that you can't have your cake and eat it too.’
  • ‘Well as they say, you can't have your cake and eat it too.’
  • ‘As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it.’
  • ‘Pundits say you can't have your cake and eat it too.’
  • ‘Well, I'm sorry, you can't have your cake and eat it.’
  • ‘Besides, you can't have your cake and eat it - either the author, and therefore the process of creation, is irrelevant in reader response theory or it isn't.’
  • ‘Who ever said you can't have your cake and eat it lied.’