Good point

ilovecinnamon@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 583 points –
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I cannot believe I spent my whole life not grasping this phrase. Thank you. I'm embarrassed how much my mind just expanded.

There are a lot of clichés that may not make a lot of sense at face value. I've found some actually go a lot deeper than you expect, or may actually apply on multiple levels. Common wisdom often hits harder than I initially realized as I've gotten older...

Edit: and as you comment shows, I've also been guilty of straight-up misinterpreting the meanings as well. Literally just the other day i realized that Lifesavers™ candy are supposed to be little life preservers, as one would have on a boat. For whatever reason, i thought they were just making some grandiose claim as brands often like to do... Sometimes our first impressions become our impressions until correction which may not take place for a long time

I've only had this phrase explained to me recently, and since then I can't help but think it would make more sense if it was told the other way around; such as "you can't eat your cake and have it too".

Six in one half dozen in the other

Or if it had originally been rendered as, "you can't keep your cake and eat it, too!"