The Pilgrim's Progress, The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War, The Red Badge of Courage, Ivanhoe, The Book of Five Rings

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt

"Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America, my fellow citizens - I do not say it in disparagement of any other great people - America is the only idealistic nation in the world."
- Woodrow Wilson

"Am I embarrassed to speak for a less than perfect democracy? Not one bit. Find me a better one. Do I suppose these are societies which are free of sin? No, I don't. Do I think ours is, on balance, incomparably the most hopeful set of human relations the world has? Yes, I do."
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan