Hercules (1998–1999)

David Hyde Pierce: Daedalus

Quotes 

• Daedalus : Behold, the fundamental machine: the lever. Sublimely simple. Say it with me.

  Hercules : I got it.

  Daedalus : No, say lever! Never mind. Here's a working model. As my close personal friend Archimedes once said, "Give me a lever long enough, a fulcrum high enough, a place to stand, and I'll kiss you on the nose." He was a strange man.

• [Daedalus is having his possessions loaded into a boat] 

  Daedalus : Gently, gently. Those crates contain my life's work.

  Dockworker : [drops a crate]  Oops! Oh, well.

  Daedalus : That's not gently! Be careful. That is one of my greatest inventions, the pulley.

  Dockworker : What's a pulley?

  Daedalus : That's a pulley. A system of rotors that give a mechanical advantage in lifting heavy loads with comparative ease.

  Dockworker : Can we use it on these back-breaking crates? It would really help us out.

  Daedalus : No, you'll scratch it.

• Daedalus : My class plan for today was to build this, a flying machine made of cypress reeds and sheep bladders. But the school board feels it's too *edgy*; so instead, we shall spit in the eye of divine inspiration and construct... a birdhouse.

  [bites fist]