Dervish Denken

Martin Heidegger is the great master of astonishment, the man whose amazement before the blank fact that we are instead of not being, has put a radiant obstacle in the path of the obvious. His is the thought which makes even momentary condescension toward the fact of existence unforgivable. In the forest clearing to which his circular paths lead, though they do not reach it, Heidegger has postulated the unity of thought and of poetry, of thought, of poetry, and of that highest act of mortal pride and celebration which is to give thanks.

There are meaner metaphors to live by.

--George Steiner, Martin Heidegger (1989), 158.