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.

Later on the famine of matches and candles made life a misery. You do not realize the importance of these things until you lack them.

The Communist’s emphasis is always on centralism and efficiency, the Anarchist’s on liberty and equality.

Everyone who had been in Madrid said that it was completely different there. In Madrid the common danger forced people of almost all kinds into some sense of comradeship. A fat man eating quails while children are begging for bread is a disgusting sight, but you are less likely to see it when you are within sound of the guns.

But the cooks produced dinner on time–a memorable feat.

I remember wondering whether I was frightened, and deciding that I was not.

I found myself in the middle of a political discussion that practically never ended.

the New Statesman was treating us to tales of Fascist barricades made of the bodies of living children

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.