When it is a matter of thinking, the greater the work done—which does not coincide in the least with the number and extent of the writings—the richer, in this work, is the unthought, that is to say what through this work and by it alone, comes toward us as if never yet thought.
—Heidegger1
But if they want to follow a plan similar to mine, they do not need me to say anything more to them other than what I have already said in this discourse; for if they are able to go further than I have done, they will be so all the more to find by themselves everything that I think I have found . . . and they would have much less pleasure in learning it from me than from themselves: and furthermore the habit that they will acquire by first of all seeking out the easy things and passing gradually, by degrees, to others which are more difficult, will be more use to them than all my teachings could be.
—Descartes2