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Sir Christopher Wren
(20 Oct 1632 - 25 Feb 1723)
English architect, mathematician and astronomer who was the greatest architect of his time, known for building St. Paul's Cathedral and numerous churches after the Great Fire of London. He also took an interest in astronomy.
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Science Quotes by Sir Christopher Wren (6 quotes)
Si monumentum requiris circumspice
Reader, if you seek his monument, look about you.
Reader, if you seek his monument, look about you.
— Sir Christopher Wren
On Wren’s tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral.
A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth.
— Sir Christopher Wren
Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Astronomy, Gresham College. In Stephen Webb, If the Universe is Teeming With Aliens—Where is Everybody? (2002), 150.
Architecture aims at Eternity.
— Sir Christopher Wren
In 'Tract I' (1670s), Collected in Ernest J. Enthoven (ed.), 'Appendix: Of Architecture; And Observations on Antique Temples, &c.: Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren: From the Parentalia; or Memoirs (1750, 1903), 236. The Tract is an unfinished manuscript.
Architecture has its political Use; publick Buildings being the Ornament of a Country; it establishes a Nation, draws People and Commerce; makes the People love their native Country, which Passion is the Original of all great Actions in a Common-wealth…. Architecture aims at Eternity.
— Sir Christopher Wren
In Charles Henry Bellenden Ker, Sir Christopher Wren (1828), 1.
For, Mathematical Demonstrations being built upon the impregnable Foundations of Geometry and Arithmetick, are the only Truths, that can sink into the Mind of Man, void of all Uncertainty; and all other Discourses participate more or less of Truth, according as their Subjects are more or less capable of Mathematical Demonstration.
— Sir Christopher Wren
Inaugural lecture of Christopher Wren in his chair of astronomy at Gresham College (1657). From Parentelia (1741, 1951), 200-201.
In things to be seen at once, much variety makes confusion, another vice of beauty. In things that are not seen at once, and have no respect one to another, great variety is commendable, provided this variety transgress not the rules of optics and geometry.
— Sir Christopher Wren
Quoted from the Parentalia in Charles Henry Bellenden Ker, Sir Christopher Wren (1828), 30. Published as a booklet in the series Lives of Eminent Persons (1833) by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Also in W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger (eds.) The Viking Book of Aphorisms (1966).
Quotes by others about Sir Christopher Wren (2)
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, 'I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St. Paul's.'
Said, 'I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St. Paul's.'
Biography for Beginners, 1905. Collected in Complete Clerihews (2008), 137.
We may almost say of him [Joseph Aspdin, inventor of Portland Cement] what the epitaph in St. Pauls Cathedral says of Sir Christopher Wren: “If you seek his monument, look around.”
In the Vancouver newspaper, 'The Sun's School Service: Portland Cement', The Vancouver Sun (14 Jan 1937), 12. No writer identified; part of the Sun-Ray Club feature “Conducted by Uncle Ben.”
See also:
- 20 Oct - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Wren's birth.
- Sir Christopher Wren; Renaissance architect, philosopher, and scientist, by Heywood Gould. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
