Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving!

The line insists that material deprivation can strip lofty ideals of their practical force. O. Henry’s fiction often contrasts sentimental or moral language with the hard economics of urban life; here, hunger becomes the ultimate solvent, reducing “love,” “religion,” “art,” and even “patriotism” to mere abstractions when basic survival is at stake. The quote underscores a hierarchy of needs: before people can meaningfully pursue virtue, beauty, or civic duty, they must be fed. It also carries a social critique—suggesting that societies that preach values while tolerating starvation are trading in “shadows of words,” rhetoric detached from lived reality.