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Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London

Book by George Orwell · 18 quotes · War, Lines, Revolutionary

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Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London Quotes

“The men who were well enough to stand had moved across the carriage to cheer the Italians as they went past. A crutch waved out of the window; bandaged forearms made the Red Salute. 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.”

MenWellsHeartMadeWarEnoughFeelingsPastDifficultLinesGunRedWindowDown AndMovedGloriousLeapCheerTruckPerniciousSaluteCarriagesCrutchesGliding
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“On a ruinous wall I came upon a poster dating from the previous year and announcing that ‘six handsome bulls’ would be killed in the arena on such and such a date. How forlorn its faded colours looked. Where were the handsome bulls and the handsome bull-fighters now? It appeared that even in Barcelona there were hardly any bullfights nowadays - for some reason all the best matadors were Fascists.”

YearsReasonWould BeWallSixDatingFighterColourHandsomeArenaBullsFascistsPostersFadedBarcelonaAll The BestForlornAnnouncingPrevious YearsMatadors
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“Money has become the grand test of virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for this they are despised. If one could earn even ten pounds a week at begging, it would become a respectable profession immediately. A beggar, looked at realistically, is simply a businessman, getting his living, like other businessmen, in the way that comes to hand. He has not, more than most modem people, sold his honour; he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at which it is impossible to grow rich.”

PeopleIfsWayMadeHandsGrowsMistakeVirtueRichImpossibleFailingWeekTenTestsTradeProfessionPoundsHonourBusinessmanRespectableBeggarBeggingDespised
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“Except for the small revolutionary groups which exist in all countries, the whole world was determined upon preventing revolution in Spain. In particular the Communist Party, with Soviet Russia behind it, had thrown its whole weight against the revolution. It was the Communist thesis that revolution at this stage would be fatal and that what was to be aimed at in Spain was not workers' control, but bourgeois democracy. It hardly needs pointing out why 'liberal' capitalist opinion took the same line.”

WorldNeedsCountryWholeWould BeLinesPartyBehindsOpinionDemocracyGroupsStageParticularRevolutionWeightWorkersDeterminedRussiaWhole WorldRevolutionaryThrownCommunistSovietCapitalistSpainPointingBourgeoisPreventingThesisSoviet RussiaCommunist Party
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“The fact is that every war suffers a kind of progressive degradation with every month that it continues, because such things as individual liberty and a truthful press are simply not compatible with military efficiency.”

KindWarFactsSufferingIndividualLibertyMilitaryMonthsPressesProgressiveAntiwarTruthfulEfficiencyDegradationCompatibleIndividual Liberty
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“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.”

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“During the first two months of the war it was the Anarchists more than anyone else who had saved the situation, and much later than this the Anarchist militia, in spite of their indiscipline, were notoriously the best fighters among the purely Spanish forces.”

FirstsTwoWarForceSituationMonthsSavedFighterRevolutionarySpiteAnarchistTwo MonthsMilitia
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