Tara Westover

"I had to become a stranger to myself to become myself"

"My story is not a story of victimhood, but of survival"

"I refused to let my father's reality be my reality"

"I learned that questioning everything is the beginning of wisdom"

"The past shapes us, but it does not define us"

"I became myself when I stopped believing what I was taught to believe"

"My education was a journey from darkness to light"

"I was not safe in my father's house, but I was not safe anywhere else either."

"I had never been to school, had never even been to a doctor or dentist."

"My father's view of the world was not just different from mine—it was constructed from completely different materials."

"I learned to read so I could read the scriptures."

"I understood that I had been educated, in a manner of speaking. But I had not been taught."

"There is a voice in my head that says I am not good enough, that I never will be."

"You can love someone and still choose to leave them."

"I had to choose between the family I was born into and the person I wanted to become."

"Knowledge became my weapon against the darkness I had been raised in."

"In trying to become educated, I had to become someone my parents no longer recognized."

"I learned that history was not written by one person, but by many voices."

"I had to teach myself that my own mind was worth trusting."

"The person I became was unrecognizable to the girl I had been."

"I chose education over blood, and it saved my life."

"The most dangerous thing my parents taught me was to trust no one but them."

"I had to learn how to learn, which was harder than learning itself."

"My education was my escape route, though I didn't know it at first."

"I was born into a war, though I didn't understand it until much later."

"I learned that love is not always enough to keep a family together."

"I had to become my own parent in order to survive my childhood."

"The past has a way of catching up with you, no matter how far you run."

"My father's certainty was more dangerous than his ignorance."

"I had to unlearn almost everything I had been taught."