Home / Authors / Rachel Holmes

Rachel Holmes

Rachel Holmes Quotes

Columnist

Rachel Holmes is a renowned columnist whose work spans a wide range of topics, including culture, society, and political issues. Her writing style is distinctive, capable of delving into complex problems with clarity and insight, and is highly appreciated by her readers.

Filter quotes by topic

All People Biographies Eleanor Hours Thinking Biographers Childhood Conform Consciousness Eight

Famous Rachel Holmes Quotes

“In November 1849, he began a long multi-part lecture series entitled, 'What is Bourgeois Property?' Well might he ask, since he had none.”

Poverty Irony Karl Marx

Book:Eleanor Marx: A Life

Source: Eleanor Marx: A Life

“For me the fascination with biography is the life of the individual in the context of history.”

Individual Biographies Fascination

Author:Rachel Holmes

“A biography is never a biography of one person, of course, but the individual life of your protagonist will never conform. It will always bang up against history.”

Persons Courses Individual Conform Biographies Bangs Protagonists Individual Life

Author:Rachel Holmes

“All of us are many different people over time. We have our childhood selves, people that we remember, but they're very different to our adult selves and the way that we create our own naratives is not that dissimilar, I think, to how a biographer structures their narrative of a life.”

People Thinking Way Different Self Remember Childhood Adults Our Children Structure Narrative Different Peoples Biographers

Author:Rachel Holmes

“When you're writing, you're making decisions about compression and the shape of a life, which are very similar to how we experience our inner consciousness.”

Writing Decision Consciousness Shapes Making Decisions Compression

Author:Rachel Holmes

“The great difficulty is that you cannot be nice. If you want to take back the power, you have to behave in ways that are not conforming and will not be about pleasing other people.”

People Ifs Way Want Nice Difficulty Behave Being Nice Conform Pleasing Others

Author:Rachel Holmes

“My maternal family are South African and when I was small and my parents separated my mother and I went back to South Africa. So for me the emergence of my own childhood consciousness was in the context of 1970s and 1980s apartheid South Africa and the movement there.”

Mother Parent My Own Consciousness Childhood Movement South South Africa Apartheid Emergence

Author:Rachel Holmes

“Eleanor Marx was a pragmatic person of actions and deeds and she was an organizer.”

Persons Action Deeds Pragmatic Eleanor Organizer

Author:Rachel Holmes

“Eleanor Marx was her father's first biographer. All subsequent biographies of Karl Marx, and most of Engels, draw on her work as their primary sources for the family history, often without knowing it. I think if she'd been a son, she would have been referenced more.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Has Beens Father Knowing Son Source Draws Primaries Biographies Family History Eleanor Biographers Engels Primary Source

Author:Rachel Holmes

“Before my book, the most common assessment of Eleanor Marx is "Yes, she's great but basically she's in the shadow of her father." Absolute bollocks. She fought him, she resisted, and she was not a kind of trocadateur of his ideas.”

Kind Book Ideas Father Common Shadow Absolutes Assessment Eleanor

Author:Rachel Holmes

“Many of us have had that experience of being in love with someone and then they end up being your enemy and there's a stranger in your bed.”

Ends Enemy Bed Stranger Being In Love

Author:Rachel Holmes

“Men want to destroy the women: you've become bigger than me, people love you more, you have a public platform, that's my space you're taking up. I can't just divorce you, I have to destroy you.”

People Men Want I Can Space Love You Bigger Divorce Platforms Love You More My Space

Author:Rachel Holmes

“The trade unions in the UK are campaigning around zero-hours contracts, which isn't about feminism, but it's a feminist issue. Women are affected by zero-hours contracts, and the recession has and is affecting women more than men.”

Men Hours Issues Feminism Trade Unions Feminist Affected Zero Contracts Recessions Campaigning Trade Unions

Author:Rachel Holmes

“The fight against unfair scheduling is like the fight for a regulated work day - it's people fighting for reasonable conditions at work and to have a life, so you can have some leisure.”

People Fighting Conditions Reasonable Leisure Unfair Work Day Scheduling

Author:Rachel Holmes

“The goal of the first International May Day celebrations was the eight-hour working day.”

Firsts May Goal Hours International Eight Celebration May Day

Author:Rachel Holmes

“Eleanor [Marx] was involved in the 1889 Paris congress resolution that established May Day as an annual demonstration of the international solidarity of labour in the demand for a legal eight-hour day.”

May Hours Involved Demand International Congress Eight Paris Labour Resolution Solidarity Demonstration Annuals Eleanor May Day

Author:Rachel Holmes

“We're all story-telling creatures, and also I think that's the point about biography because the life is exemplary.”

Thinking Stories Life Is Creatures Biographies Exemplary

Author:Rachel Holmes

“People don't give up power and privilege out of the goodness of their hearts.”

People Giving Heart Goodness Giving Up Privilege Don't Give Up

Author:Rachel Holmes

“One of the key things about the entitlement and power of patriarchy, but also within feminism, is not that it's wilful nastiness. But you can't ask for permission. You can negotiate and you can bring people on board and you can build a base but you can't expect for it to be given.”

People Asks Given Feminism Keys Boards Permission Patriarchy Entitlement Key Things Nastiness

Author:Rachel Holmes

About the Author

Known for: Columnist
Quotes: 19

Related Topics

People Biographies Eleanor Hours Thinking Biographers Childhood Conform Consciousness Eight

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Eleanor Marx: A LifeRelated source material

Similar Authors

Blanche Wiesen CookBrowse related quotes
William A. RusherBrowse related quotes
Hermione LeeBrowse related quotes
Art ShayBrowse related quotes
Norman SherryBrowse related quotes
Alexander III of RussiaBrowse related quotes
Michael HolroydBrowse related quotes
Ralph McGillBrowse related quotes
Iris OrigoBrowse related quotes
Paul Murray KendallBrowse related quotes