[The skin] is the oldest and the most sensitive of our organs, our first medium of communication, and our most efficient protector... Even the transparent cornea of the eye is overlain by a layer of modified skin... Touch is the parent of our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. It is the sense which became differentiated into the others, a fact that seems to be recognised in the age-old evaluation of touch as "the mother of the senses".

-Ashley Montagu, citada por Juhani Pallasmaa, en The eyes of the skin, Architecture and the Senses.