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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 The Architecture of Happiness
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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.
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Alain de Botton

The Architecture of Happiness

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