"We are still far from pondering the essence of
 action decisively enough. We view action only as
 causing an effect. The actuality of the effect is
 valued according to its utility. But the essence of
 Action is accomplishment. To accomplish means to
 unfold something into the fullness of its essence,
 to lead forth into this fullness - 'producere'.
 Therefore only what already is can really be
 accomplished. But what "is" above all is Being.
 Thinking accomplishes the relation of Being to
 the essence of man. It does not make or cause the
 relation. Thinking brings this relation to Being
 solely as something handed over to it from Being.
 Such offering consists in the fact that in thinking
 Being comes to language. Language is the house of
 Being. In its home man dwells. Those who think
 and those who create with words are the guardians
 of this home. Their guardianship accomplishes the
 manifestation of language and maintains it in
 language through their speech. Thinking does not
 become action only because some effect issues
 from it or because it is applied. Thinking acts
 insofar as it thinks. Such action is presumably
 the simplest and at the same time the highest,
 because it concerns the relation of Being to man."




			-Martin Heidegger
                        From his "Letter on Humanism," reprinted in
                        Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings, ed. and trans.
                        David F. Krell (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), p. 193.
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