A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

You cannot HAVE your cake and eat it
You cannot consume or spend something and still keep possession of it: once the cake is eaten, it is gone. The positions of have and eat are often reversed.

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  1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. ix. L2 I trowe ye raue, Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake? 1611 J. DAVIES Scourge of Folly no. 271 A man cannot eat his cake and haue it stil. 1812 in R. C. Knopf Document Transcriptions of War of 1812 (1959) VI. 204 We cannot have our cake and eat it too. 1938 P. MCGUIRE Funeral in Eden ii. Not that the savages were especially savage. They have always been a sensitive people, and when they ate a man they probably felt genuinely sorry that they could not have their cake and eat it, so to speak. 2002 R. J. BERNSTEIN Radical Evil 32 Why does Kant allow himself to get entangled in such difficulties and paradoxes? It looks as if he wants to have his cake and eat it too!
  

have see also the MORE you get, the more you want; NOTHING venture, nothing have; what you SPEND, you have; you can have TOO much of a good thing.
haw see when all FRUIT fails, welcome haws.
hawk see a CLEVER hawk hides its claws.
HAWKS will not pick out hawks’ eyes

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  1573 J. SANFORDE Garden of Pleasure 104 One crowe neuer pulleth out an others eyes. 1817 SCOTT Rob Roy III. iii. I wadna..rest my main dependence on the Hielandmen —hawks winna pike out hawks’ een.—They quarrel amang them-sells .. but they are sure to join .. against a’ civilized folk. 1883 J. PAYN Thicker than Water III. xli. Members of his profession .. while warning others of the dangers of the table, seem to pluck from them the flower Safety. (Is it that, since hawks do not peck out hawks’ een, they know they can be cured for nothing?) 1915 J. BUCHAN Salute to Adventurers vi. I have heard that hawks should not pick out hawks’ eyes. What do you propose to gain? 1975 J. O’FAOLAIN Women in Wall xiv. The crow doesn’t pluck out the crow’s eye but poor folk bear the brunt. "reciprocity