Here are some quotes from O Pioneers! that relate to the theme of American confidence and determination.

• "That evening, after she had washed the supper dishes, Alexandra sat down on the kitchen doorstep, while her mother was mixing the bread. It was a still, deep-breathing summer night, full of the smell of the hay fields. Sounds of laughter and splashing came up from the pasture, and when the moon rose rapidly above the bare rim of the prairie, the pond glittered like polished metal, and she could see the flash of white bodies as the boys ran about the edge, or jumped into the water. Alexandra watched the shimmering pool dreamily, but eventually her eyes went back to the sorghum patch south of the barn, where she was planning to make her new pig corral." In this quote, Alexandra Bergson regards the beauty of the land with an eye mainly toward improving it. While the boys experience the joys of swimming, she mainly thinks about how the land can be useful in producing food. She is determined to make the land fruitful.

• "Down there they have a little certainty, but up with us there is a big chance. We must have faith in the high land, Emil. I want to hold on harder than ever, and when you’re a man you’ll thank me.” In this quote, Alexandra speaks to her brother, Emil, about remaining confident about their land, even though the land is not doing well at the moment. She has faith that her confidence will pay off, and it does.

• "For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it, until her tears blinded her. Then the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman." In this lyrical quote, Alexandra expresses her deep connection to the land. Though the land has always been untamed, she is confident about her ability to tame it and make it bend to her will.

• "The old wild country, the struggle in which his sister was destined to succeed while so many men broke their hearts and died, he can scarcely remember. That is all among the dim things of childhood and has been forgotten in the brighter pattern life weaves to-day, in the bright facts of being captain of the track team, and holding the interstate record for the high jump, in the all-suffusing brightness of being twenty-one." Emil and his family, under Alexandra's guidance, have been so successful he has forgotten how much effort was required to cultivate the land. Instead, he lives in a bright reality.