live by bread alone

present singular third person lives by bread alone · participle present living by bread alone · participle past lived by bread alone · past lived by bread alone

1. idiomaticTo sustain oneself materially while neglecting moral or spiritual beliefs, especially Christianity.

   Living by bread alone will provide us with the means of living; but it will leave us short on the true purpose of life.

   1943, J. B. Lawrence, The Peril of Bread, Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, page 18

   2 more examples

   Micah said that the prophets in his day divined for money, and that they would prepare war against those who would not feed them. These good managers, who lived by bread alone, must have pitied the poor prophets who lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God!

   1917, Andrew W. Blackwood, The Prophets Elijah to Christ, New York, NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, page 162

   Yet the battle against insecurity is only half the battle for a better life. A full dinner pail is a necessity. But Americans have never lived by bread alone. We have lived by ideals and by moral values.

   1955, Adlai Stevenson II, “Support of unions on strike”, in Report of Proceedings (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations), page 139