if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs

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English

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Alternative forms

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Proverb

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if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs

  1. Draws attention to the futility of a plan or strategy in the absence of the resources necessary for it to work.
    • 1997, United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Encryption, Key Recovery, and Privacy Protection in the Information Age, →ISBN, page 110:
      The situation reminds me of the statement that "if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs — if we had eggs" — but in a world in which there are no hens. In theory, truly secure systems are impossible.
    • 2005, Russ Hall, No Murder Before Its Time, →ISBN, page 117:
      "And if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs," Esbeth grumped.
    • 2006, Tracey J. Kinney, Conflict and Cooperation: Documents on Modern Global History:
      This is the, 'If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs' philosophy. . . . Delivering our cash to dictatorial and silly governments was bad, but even worse was delivering our big ideas about centralization, economic planning, and social justice to a country that had 120 university graduates at the time of independence.
    • 2015, P.J. O'Rourke, Thrown Under the Omnibus, →ISBN:
      This is the "if we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs" philosophy. Or as Nzezele put it as I was leaving Dar after having given him a large and not very well-earned tip, "When you get back to America, if you find that you have any extra money, could you send me a wristwatch?"