What does “have your cake and eat it too” mean?

Having your cake refers to keeping it with you. This means you want to preserve the cake for the future. But you also want to eat it. This is contradictory. The moment you eat your cake, you can’t have it because it is finished. Conversely, if you decide to have or keep your cake then you can’t eat it.

This proverb highlights a very valuable lesson which is that you cannot have it both ways. When you are presented with two choices that are mutually exclusive, you have to choose one. You cannot choose both. Either you have to eat the cake or have it. If we examine the wording, we find that ‘eat your cake and have it’ sounds more logical.