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Top 30 Hyeonseo Lee Quotes (2025 Update)

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “As many discover, freedom – real freedom, in which your life is what you make of it and the choices are your own – can be terrifying.”

1. “As many discover, freedom – real freedom, in which your life is what you make of it and the choices are your own – can be terrifying.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “I wanted to belong, like everyone else around me did, but there was no country I could say was mine. I had no one to tell me that many other people in the world have a fragmented identity; that it doesn’t matter. That who we are as a person is what’s important.”

2. “I wanted to belong, like everyone else around me did, but there was no country I could say was mine. I had no one to tell me that many other people in the world have a fragmented identity; that it doesn’t matter. That who we are as a person is what’s important.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “Kind people who put others before themselves would be the first to die. It was the ruthless and the selfish who would survive.”

3. “Kind people who put others before themselves would be the first to die. It was the ruthless and the selfish who would survive.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “In North Korea the only laws that truly matter, and for which extreme penalties are imposed if they are broken, touch on loyalty to the Kim dynasty.”

4. “In North Korea the only laws that truly matter, and for which extreme penalties are imposed if they are broken, touch on loyalty to the Kim dynasty.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “This is when I understood that we can do without almost anything – our home, even our country. But we will never do without other people, and we will never do without family.”

5. “This is when I understood that we can do without almost anything – our home, even our country. But we will never do without other people, and we will never do without family.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “Kindness toward strangers is rare in North Korea. There is risk in helping others. The irony was that by forcing us to be good citizens, the state made accusers and informers of us all.”

6. “Kindness toward strangers is rare in North Korea. There is risk in helping others. The irony was that by forcing us to be good citizens, the state made accusers and informers of us all.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “Leaving North Korea is not like leaving any other country. It is more like leaving another universe. I will never truly be free of its gravity, no matter how far I journey.”

7. “Leaving North Korea is not like leaving any other country. It is more like leaving another universe. I will never truly be free of its gravity, no matter how far I journey.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “I had to learn Mandarin. And I had the best teacher – necessity. You can study a language for years at school, but nothing helps you succeed like need, and mine was clear, and urgent.”

8. “I had to learn Mandarin. And I had the best teacher – necessity. You can study a language for years at school, but nothing helps you succeed like need, and mine was clear, and urgent.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “North Korea is an atheist state. Anyone caught in possession of a Bible faces execution or a life in the gulag. Kim worship is the only permitted outlet for spiritual fervour. Shamans and fortune-tellers, too, are outlawed, but high cadres of the regime consult them. We’d heard that even Kim Jong-il himself sought their advice.”

9. “North Korea is an atheist state. Anyone caught in possession of a Bible faces execution or a life in the gulag. Kim worship is the only permitted outlet for spiritual fervour. Shamans and fortune-tellers, too, are outlawed, but high cadres of the regime consult them. We’d heard that even Kim Jong-il himself sought their advice.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “One of the main reasons that distinctions between oppressor and victim are blurred in North Korea is that no one there has any concept of rights. To know that your rights are being abused, or that you are abusing someone else’s, you first have to know that you have them, and what they are.”

10. “One of the main reasons that distinctions between oppressor and victim are blurred in North Korea is that no one there has any concept of rights. To know that your rights are being abused, or that you are abusing someone else’s, you first have to know that you have them, and what they are.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “I was already hiding beneath so many lies that I hardly knew who I was any more. I was becoming a non-person.”

11. “I was already hiding beneath so many lies that I hardly knew who I was any more. I was becoming a non-person.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “Not only did I believe that humans were selfish and base, I also knew that plenty of them were actually bad – content to destroy lives for their own gain. I’d seen Korean-Chinese expose North Korean escapees to the police in return for money. I’d known people who’d been trafficked by other humans as if they were livestock. That world was familiar to me. All my life, random acts of kindness had been so rare that they’d stick in my memory, and I’d think: how strange.”

12. “Not only did I believe that humans were selfish and base, I also knew that plenty of them were actually bad – content to destroy lives for their own gain. I’d seen Korean-Chinese expose North Korean escapees to the police in return for money. I’d known people who’d been trafficked by other humans as if they were livestock. That world was familiar to me. All my life, random acts of kindness had been so rare that they’d stick in my memory, and I’d think: how strange.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “I will never truly be free of its gravity, no matter how far I journey.”

13. “I will never truly be free of its gravity, no matter how far I journey.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “After years in the Chinese workforce, I had developed an emotional attachment to money. My earnings were my hard work and long hours; my savings were comforts deferred.”

14. “After years in the Chinese workforce, I had developed an emotional attachment to money. My earnings were my hard work and long hours; my savings were comforts deferred.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “Behind the bluster, I sensed fear. Dictatorships may seem strong and unified, but they are always weaker than they appear. They are governed by the whim of one man, who can’t draw upon a wealth of discussion and debate, as democracies can, because he rules through terror and the only truth permitted is his own.”

15. “Behind the bluster, I sensed fear. Dictatorships may seem strong and unified, but they are always weaker than they appear. They are governed by the whim of one man, who can’t draw upon a wealth of discussion and debate, as democracies can, because he rules through terror and the only truth permitted is his own.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “It was the dilemma all three of us had. Every choice we made cut us off permanently from someone we loved.”

16. “It was the dilemma all three of us had. Every choice we made cut us off permanently from someone we loved.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “This is the first time I will tell my story in English, a language still new to me. The journey to this moment has been a long one.”

17. “This is the first time I will tell my story in English, a language still new to me. The journey to this moment has been a long one.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “Dictatorships may seem strong and unified, but they are always weaker than they appear.”

18. “Dictatorships may seem strong and unified, but they are always weaker than they appear.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “Suicide in Korean culture is a highly emotive means of protest. The regime regards it as a form of defection.”

19. “Suicide in Korean culture is a highly emotive means of protest. The regime regards it as a form of defection.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “One of the tragedies of North Korea is that everyone wears a mask, which they let slip at their peril.”

20. “One of the tragedies of North Korea is that everyone wears a mask, which they let slip at their peril.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “She’d said nothing about keeping this a secret, but I knew I would never mention it to my mother or my father or anyone. I was too young to know that talking about it is exactly what I should have done.”

21. “She’d said nothing about keeping this a secret, but I knew I would never mention it to my mother or my father or anyone. I was too young to know that talking about it is exactly what I should have done.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “She liked to dress well because she thought this made up for plain and ordinary looks. In fact she was prettier than she knew.”

22. “She liked to dress well because she thought this made up for plain and ordinary looks. In fact she was prettier than she knew.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “North Koreans who have never left don’t think critically because they have no point of comparison – with previous governments, different policies, or with other societies in the outside world.”

23. “North Koreans who have never left don’t think critically because they have no point of comparison – with previous governments, different policies, or with other societies in the outside world.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “In her world, the law was upside down. People had to break the law to live. The prohibition on drug-dealing, a serious crime in most countries, is not viewed in the same way – as protective of society – by North Koreans. It is viewed as a risk, like unauthorized parking. If you can get away with it, where’s the harm?”

24. “In her world, the law was upside down. People had to break the law to live. The prohibition on drug-dealing, a serious crime in most countries, is not viewed in the same way – as protective of society – by North Koreans. It is viewed as a risk, like unauthorized parking. If you can get away with it, where’s the harm?”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “It was at school in Hamhung that I received my initiation into ‘life purification time’, or self-criticism sessions. These have been a basic feature of life in North Korea since they were introduced by Kim Jong-il in 1974, and are the occasions almost everyone.”

25. “It was at school in Hamhung that I received my initiation into ‘life purification time’, or self-criticism sessions. These have been a basic feature of life in North Korea since they were introduced by Kim Jong-il in 1974, and are the occasions almost everyone.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “He’d valued his dignity more than his own life.”

26. “He’d valued his dignity more than his own life.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “The school year started in September, with a long vacation in the winter, not the summer, due to the difficulty of keeping the schools warm in North Korea’s harsh winters. My kindergarten had a large wood-burning stove in the middle of the classroom and walls painted with colourful scenes of children performing gymnastics, children in uniform, and of a North Korean soldier simultaneously impaling a Yankee, a Japanese and a South Korean soldier with his rifle bayonet.”

27. “The school year started in September, with a long vacation in the winter, not the summer, due to the difficulty of keeping the schools warm in North Korea’s harsh winters. My kindergarten had a large wood-burning stove in the middle of the classroom and walls painted with colourful scenes of children performing gymnastics, children in uniform, and of a North Korean soldier simultaneously impaling a Yankee, a Japanese and a South Korean soldier with his rifle bayonet.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “I ate noodles every day. After a week, I wanted a change and rang Kim to ask him the English word for bab. ‘Rice,’ he said. ‘Lice,’ I repeated. ‘Not lice, rice. They’re two different things. You must ask for rice.’ ‘Got it. Lice.”

28. “I ate noodles every day. After a week, I wanted a change and rang Kim to ask him the English word for bab. ‘Rice,’ he said. ‘Lice,’ I repeated. ‘Not lice, rice. They’re two different things. You must ask for rice.’ ‘Got it. Lice.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “History lessons were superficial. The past was not set in stone, and was occasionally rewritten.”

29. “History lessons were superficial. The past was not set in stone, and was occasionally rewritten.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “It was an aspiring neighbourhood that retained a faint edge of slum, typical of Shanghai. Pensioners in Mao-era padded jackets would sit on doorsteps playing mah-jong, oblivious to the Prada-clad girls sweeping past on their way to work.”

30. “It was an aspiring neighbourhood that retained a faint edge of slum, typical of Shanghai. Pensioners in Mao-era padded jackets would sit on doorsteps playing mah-jong, oblivious to the Prada-clad girls sweeping past on their way to work.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee Quote: “In truth there is no dividing line between cruel leaders and oppressed citizens. The Kims rule by making everyone complicit in a brutal system, implicating all, from the highest to the lowest, blurring morals so that no one is blameless.”

31. “In truth there is no dividing line between cruel leaders and oppressed citizens. The Kims rule by making everyone complicit in a brutal system, implicating all, from the highest to the lowest, blurring morals so that no one is blameless.”

— Hyeonseo Lee

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