You can't eat your cake and have it

You can't eat your cake and have it

Russian translation

Нельзя съесть свой пирог и оставить его нетронутым.
Нельзя делать две взаимоисключающие вещи, пытаться совместить несовместимое.

Derivation

To eat one's cake and have it.

Variation

One can't eat one's cake and have it.
One can't have one's cake and kep it.

Synonyms

A man cannot spin and reel at the same time.
One cannot blow and swallow at the same time.

Comparison

Один пирог два раза не съешь.
С одного вола двух шкур не дерут.

Examples

By the way, about security and risk, I don't really believe that one can't have one's cake and eat it - which also you'll see. (Wilson)

The longer I live, the more I see the blessing of being born in a state of life where you can't both eat your cake and give it away! (Yonge)

Don't come tagging after me now, Deborah, offering me some half-baked yearning. I know what you want. You want to have your cake, eat it, and damn it while it's going down. I'm not responsible for your problems, Deborah. (McHugh)

When secretly tormented by a knowledge or a suspicion of their own limitations - it is surely because they do not accept that it is their own limitations that have made them what they are. They want to have their cake and eat other people's too. (Plomer)