Why do people say "he just wants to have his cake and eat it too."?!?

yeah really why would I want my cake if I can't eat it. That's kind of the purpose to have a cake is to eat it, so I agree with you it's crazy.

I guess if we said he wants his money and spend it to, it would make a bit more sense, cause I would want to hold on to my money but yet spend it and I can't do both so it would be a better metaphor than cake.

Actually, over time the phrase has been turned around. It should be said" Eat your cake and have it too". It means wanting two things that cannot exist at the same time. If you have a nice piece of cake, you would want to eat it, but some people want to eat it, but still have a piece of cake. Impossible. Its like people that want to be married but live a single life. Have to have one or the other(but they still want both)

The saying is 'You can't have your cake and eat it."

This means that you can either keep the piece of cake or eat it but not both. It's used to describe something someone may want but doesn't want to pay the price either in time, labour or money. So, for example, if someone were to want to, derive 20 miles but not put any petrol in the car you could say "You can't have your cake and eat it."

It was also a saying "You can't have your cake and halfpenny." meaning that you couldn't want something that costs money without paying for it, the choice being keeping your halfpenny and having no cake or buying the cake and having no halfpenny.

I asked this question once before too! I think it's a dumb saying as well. The reason they said is that you can have your cake, or you can eat your cake. Once you eat it, you don't have it any more. I still say the whole purpose to having cake is to eat it though! I mean what else is it good for!

I think the saying got jumbled. It really means that you want to eat your cake and have it too--that you still want to have something even after you've used it all up.

well, if you take it literally, you know how sometimes something is so pretty that you don't want to touch it? like a wedding cake for example. it could be so pretty and it would remind you of your beautiful wedding, so you want to have the cake to look at, but you still want to eat it.

you have to really think about it It's just like this for example. Same thing goes for people that cheat. They can't be happy with the one that they have they have to go outside the box. Being greedy is what it is.

They want what they have and what ever else is out there.

Typically, a cake is for sharing with others. it means that a person wants ALL of it,not to share.

part of enjoying things is actually to possess them...u can brag about having something u know.

Or he wants Kate and Edith too. LOL