A Helpful Vision of Ourselves
We depend on our surroundings obliquely to embody the moods and ideas we respect and then to remind us of them. We look to our buildings to hold us, like a kind of psychological mould, to a helpful vision of ourselves. We arrange around us material forms which communicate to us what we need � but are at constant risk of forgetting what we need � within. We turn to wallpaper, benches, paintings and streets to staunch the disappearance of our true selves.
Alain de Botton, in 'The Architecture of Happiness'