Vera Marsova’s Reviews > Homage to Catalonia > Status Update

"The Spanish secret police had some of the spirit of the Gestapo, but not much of its Competence."

"It was like an allegorical picture of war; the trainload of fresh men gliding proudly up the line, the maimed men sliding slowly down, and all the while the guns on the open trucks making one’s heart leap as guns always do, and reviving that pernicious feeling, so difficult to get rid of, that war is glorious after all."

"There are occasions when it pays better to fight and be beaten than not to fight at all."

"And since the revolution had got to be crushed, it greatly simplified things to pretend that no revolution had happened. In this way the real significance of every event could be covered up; every shift of power from the trade unions to the central Government could be represented as a necessary step in military reorganization."
I can see where the inspiration for 1984 came from...

" In this war everyone always did miss everyone else, when it was humanly possible."
I don't think Orwell has a good opinion of the Spanish standard of marksmanship xD

"In trench warfare five things are important: firewood, food, tobacco, candles, and the enemy. In winter on the Zaragoza front they were important in that order, with the enemy a bad last."

"War, to me, meant roaring projectiles and skipping shards of steel; above all it meant mud, lice, hunger, and cold. It is curious, but I dreaded the cold much more than I dreaded the enemy."