Conundrums of the mundane

Cabin fever in the snow:
On progress:
On Politicians "They all steal your chickens." (1920)
"Whether you think you can do it or you think you can't, you're right on both counts." (1925)
"On an island made mostly of coal and surrounded by fish, what kind of government organises a shortage of both?" (1947)
"In a nation that virtually founded education and blessed with abundance of oil, what kind of government cuts the first and runs out of the second?" (2010)