"Grub first, then ethics"
About this Quote
Brecht’s line is a slap across the face of polite morality: before you sermonize about virtue, check whether anyone’s had dinner. “Grub first, then ethics” is blunt on purpose, stripping ethics of its cozy status as a purely personal choice and dragging it into the material world. The phrasing is almost comedic in its impatience - “grub” is not “bread” or “sustenance,” it’s the earthy, undignified word you use when you’re tired of being lectured. That tonal choice matters: Brecht is puncturing the sanctimony of those who treat hunger as a character flaw.
The intent is political. Brecht, writing in the shadow of war, economic collapse, and the hard ideologies of the early 20th century, insists that morality cannot be separated from conditions. If people steal, lie, or sell out, the scandal is not simply their souls; it’s the system that made survival a daily negotiation. The subtext is a rebuke to bourgeois liberalism, which loves ethical ideals but often refuses the economic rearrangements that would make ethical living possible for everyone.
It also functions as a warning to would-be reformers: you don’t uplift people by demanding purity from them while their stomachs are empty. Feed them, stabilize their lives, give them dignity - then talk about higher principles. Brecht’s cynicism isn’t anti-ethics; it’s an argument that ethics without material justice is theater, and he knew theater well enough to call a prop a prop.
The intent is political. Brecht, writing in the shadow of war, economic collapse, and the hard ideologies of the early 20th century, insists that morality cannot be separated from conditions. If people steal, lie, or sell out, the scandal is not simply their souls; it’s the system that made survival a daily negotiation. The subtext is a rebuke to bourgeois liberalism, which loves ethical ideals but often refuses the economic rearrangements that would make ethical living possible for everyone.
It also functions as a warning to would-be reformers: you don’t uplift people by demanding purity from them while their stomachs are empty. Feed them, stabilize their lives, give them dignity - then talk about higher principles. Brecht’s cynicism isn’t anti-ethics; it’s an argument that ethics without material justice is theater, and he knew theater well enough to call a prop a prop.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Unverified source: Die Dreigroschenoper (Bertolt Brecht, 1928)
Evidence: Act II, 'Zweites Dreigroschenfinale' / song 'Wovon lebt der Mensch?' (exact page varies by edition; original libretto reported as 79 pp.). The English aphorism 'Grub first, then ethics' is a common translation of Brecht’s German line 'Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral,' sung in Die Dre... Other candidates (2) Ethics (Peter Cave, 2015) compilation95.0% ... Grub first; then ethics. Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world. ... Bertolt Brecht (Bertolt Brecht) compilation75.0% ey 1949 1960 isbn 080215039x first comes a full stomach then comes ethics and th |
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