# Homage to Catalonia - Author: [George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) - Quotes: 26 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia ## Quotes > The workers' militias, based on the trade unions and each composed of people of approximately the same political opinions, had the effect of canalizing into one place all the most revolutionary sentiment in the country. I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/the-workers-militias.md) > It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot ever gets near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propaganda-tours. Sometimes it is a comfort to me to think that the aeroplane is altering the conditions of war. Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/it-is-the.md) > It was queer how the general spirit seemed to change when you got anywhere near the front line. All or nearly all of the vicious hatred of the political parties evaporated. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/it-was-queer.md) > I have no particular love for the idealised "worker" as he appears in the bourgeois Communist's mind, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/i-have-no-particular.md) > In reality it was the Communists above all others who prevented revolution in Spain. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/in-reality-it-was.md) > One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/one-of-the.md) > The Communists had gained power and a vast increase of membership partly by appealing to the middle classes against the revolutionaries, but partly also because they were the only people who looked capable of winning the war. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/the-communists-had.md) > [F]inally, a year after the outbreak of war and revolution, there remained a Government composed entirely of Right-wing Socialists, Liberals, and Communists. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/f-inally-a-year.md) > In every country in the world a huge tribe of party-hacks and sleek little professors are busy 'proving' that Socialism means no more than a planned state—capitalism with the grab-motive left intact. But fortunately there also exists a vision of Socialism quite different from this. The thing that attracts ordinary men to Socialism and makes them willing to risk their skins for it, the 'mystique' of Socialism, is the idea of equality; to the vast majority of people Socialism means a classless society, or it means nothing at all. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/in-every-country.md) > All Spaniards, we discovered, knew two English expressions. One was "O.K., baby", the other was a word used by the Barcelona whores in their dealings with English sailors, and I am afraid the compositors would not print it. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/all-spaniards-we-discovered.md) > An immense amount, enough to fill many books, has already been written on the subject [of the Barcelona fighting], and I do not suppose I should exaggerate if I said that nine-tenths of it is untruthful. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/an-immense-amount.md) > Chiefly I remember the horsy smells, the quavering bugle-calls (all our buglers were amateurs – I first learned the Spanish bugle-calls by listening to them outside the Fascist lines), the tramp-tramp of hobnailed boots in the barrack yard, the long morning parades in the wintry sunshine, the wild games of football, fifty a side, in the gravelled riding-school. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/chiefly-i-remember.md) > In stationary warfare there are three things that all soldiers long for: a battle, more cigarettes, and a week's leave. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/in-stationary-warfare.md) > No one I met at this time — doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients — failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/no-one-i-met.md) > By one of those strokes of luck that happen about once in a year I had managed to drop the bomb almost exactly where the rifle had flashed. There was the roar of the explosion and then, instantly, a diabolical outcry of screams and groans. We had got one of them, anyway; I don't know whether he was killed, but certainly he was badly hurt. Poor wretch, poor wretch! I felt a vague sorrow as I heard him screaming. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/by-one-of-those.md) > It seemed queer, in the barber's shop, to see the Anarchist notice still on the wall, explaining that tips were prohibited. "The Revolution has struck off our chains," the notice said. I felt like telling the barbers that their chains would soon be back on again if they didn't look out. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/it-seemed-queer.md) > I think the pacifists might find it helpful to illustrate their pamphlets with enlarged photographs of lice. Glory of war, indeed! [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/i-think-the.md) > I have the most evil memories of Spain, but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/i-have-the.md) > It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle ... There was much in it that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/it-was-the.md) > The only unexpected feature in the Spanish situation – and outside Spain it has caused an immense amount of misunderstanding – is that among the parties on the Government side the Communists stood not upon the extreme Left, but upon the extreme Right. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/the-only-unexpected.md) > The fat Russian agent was cornering all the foreign refugees in turn and explaining plausibly that this whole affair was an Anarchist plot. I watched him with some interest, for it was the first time that I had seen a person whose profession was telling lies — unless one counts journalists. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/the-fat-russian.md) > Human beings were behaving as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/human-beings-were.md) > [G]oodness knows how many times the Spanish standard of marksmanship has saved my life. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/g-oodness-knows-how.md) > Everyone always did miss everyone else in this war, whenever it was humanly possible to do so. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/everyone-always-did.md) > Elsewhere in Spain no formal unification between Socialists and Communists had taken place, but the Communist viewpoint and the Right-wing Socialist viewpoint could everywhere be regarded as identical. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/elsewhere-in-spain.md) > The revolutionary atmosphere remained as I had first known it. General and private, peasant and militiaman, still met as equals; everyone drew the same pay, wore the same clothes, ate the same food, and called everyone else 'thou' and 'comrade'; there was no boss-class, no menial-class, no beggars, no prostitutes, no lawyers, no priests, no boot-licking, no cap-touching. I was breathing the air of equality, and I was simple enough to imagine that it existed all over Spain. I did not realize that more or less by chance I was isolated among the most revolutionary section of the Spanish working class. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/the-revolutionary-atmosphere.md)