I didn't quite jump up and shout, yeah! when I read the following paragraph, but I could (and perhaps should) have done, especially if I had been on a crowded train: Heidegger from Basic Writings (page 262), "Thus thinking is a deed. But a deed that also surpasses praxis. Thinking towers above action and production, not through the grandeur of its achievement and not as a consequence of its effect, but through the humbleness of its inconsequential accomplishment. For thinking in its saying merely brings the unspoken word of Being to language."
In the rush of excitement at reading this I had associations with the paradoxical figure of Christ; the humiliated king, the shamed saviour. The apparent inconsequential accomplishment, bringing to light the utter strangeness of human being. And what about the humbleness of breath, the humbleness of simple awareness.
It's so good to find some thought which stands bold and clear and is a counter to the always prevailing orthodoxy of fame and fortune, over-reaching achievement.