Quotes from A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom

Felix Abt ·  320 pages

Rating: (138 votes)


“When does a wife know that her husband is cheating on her? When he starts complaining about the lack of water as he wants to have two showers a week.” This was one of the many popular jokes.”
― Felix Abt, quote from A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom


“Yet skirts are getting shorter, and more women can be seen in Pyongyang now with high heels. The change must be shocking to people in the more conservative countryside, where high heels continue to be associated with prostitution.”
― Felix Abt, quote from A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom


“It’s a little-known story that bicycles played a big role in propping up North Korea’s informal and privatized economy, because they helped small traders shuffle goods between the manufacturers and markets. These bicycle riders, in turn, became an informal merchant class.”
― Felix Abt, quote from A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom


“The husband beats his wife,” she responded. “The neighbors don’t care, and even if they complained, the man would not change.”
― Felix Abt, quote from A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom


“One time an employee brought cakes to the office to celebrate her daughter’s passing the exam, whereas another coincidentally fell “sick” when her child repeatedly failed the entrance exams.”
― Felix Abt, quote from A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom



“To my amusement, a traffic sign prohibited ox carts from passing by revolutionary sites, out of fear that the oxen would defecate close to these venerated monuments. These strong, resilient, and patient animals weren’t merely shuffling goods along roads, but because of the limited mechanization and shortage of fuel they also plowed rice paddy fields. I got the impression that, unlike in China and Vietnam where every year is the year of a different animal, in North Korea every year was the Year of the Oxen.”
― Felix Abt, quote from A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom


Video

About the author

Felix Abt
Born place: in Switzerland
Born date January 15, 2018
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“... He was not for that moment a human being, but a frenzied creature possessed by rage, turned into an animal. All that could be seen in him was the urge to hurt, and it was, as it always will be, the most dreadful sight in the world.”
― Susan Cooper, quote from The Grey King


“…the rain was a fine thing. She often preferred it to the warm slant of sun and the clear brilliance of cloudless blue skies. The rain was a soft gray curtain, tucking her away from the world.”
― Nora Roberts, quote from Born in Fire


“For some reason my father saw no problem with us pplaying "barbie and ken go to hawaii to save their marriage by picking up another couple for sexy good times," but if barbie and ken had gone to hawaii to "rescue another couple from a crazed kidnapper," that would have been wrong.”
― Michele Jaffe, quote from Bad Kitty


“You’re not a morning person, are you? (Simone)
I’m a Dream-Hunter/demon. By my very nature I’m nocturnal. That big yellow ball in the sky offends me to the very core of my being. (Xypher)”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon, quote from Dream Chaser


“Ephrem the Syrian says, ‘Good speech is silver, but silence is pure gold.’ ”—Way of a Pilgrim”
― Ram Dass, quote from Be Here Now


Interesting books

Desolation Angels
(9.5K)
Desolation Angels
by Jack Kerouac
The Confession
(52.5K)
The Confession
by John Grisham
The Proposition
(47.6K)
The Proposition
by Katie Ashley
The Riddle
(18.7K)
The Riddle
by Alison Croggon
Body of Evidence
(55.7K)
Body of Evidence
by Patricia Cornwell
The True Meaning of Smekday
(7.9K)
The True Meaning of...
by Adam Rex

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.