burrito 's Key Ideas from The Architecture of Happiness
by Alain De Botton

How wise were the ancient philosophers in suggesting that we exclude from our visions of contentment anything that might one day be covered by a lava or blow down in a hurricane, succumb to a chocolate smear or absorb a wine stain.

The creation of beauty, once viewed as the central task of the architect, has quietly evaporated for serious professional discussion and retreated to a confused private imperative.

The only problem with unrestricted choice, however, is that it tends not to lie so far from outright chaos.

Sculptures and buildings were to assist us in bringing the best of ourselves to the fore.

They were to embalm our highest aspirations.

We respect a style which can move us away from what we fear and towards what we crave.

Architecture should have the confidence and the kindness to be a little boring.

Just as we cannot appreciate the attractions of safety without a background impression of danger, so, too, it is only in a building which flirts with confusion that we can apprehend the scale of our debt to our ordering capacities.