"It takes great wit and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish"
About this Quote
Happiness, Herrick implies, is not a soft landing; it is an athletic event. The line bristles against the pious idea that joy arrives as a reward for virtue or good fortune. Instead, he frames it as something you have to generate with "wit and interest and energy" - a trio that makes happiness sound like craft, curiosity, and stamina rather than mere mood. Wit matters because it lets you metabolize disappointment without being flattened by it; interest keeps you from turning inward and rancid; energy is the fuel that prevents the mind from defaulting to grievance.
The subtext is almost combative: happiness is hard because the world is heavy, and staying "open and alive" is a choice you have to keep re-making. That phrase is doing a lot of work. "Open" is vulnerability, a willingness to be moved; "alive" is attention, the refusal to sleepwalk through days. Herrick, a 17th-century poet shaped by civil upheaval and religious pressure, isn’t naive about suffering. He’s arguing that the remarkable human trick is not endurance alone but animation - keeping the inner sensorium switched on when history and habit conspire to dull it.
Calling the pursuit of happiness "the greatest feat" quietly demotes other masculine-era ideals: conquest, honor, even salvation. It’s a radical revaluation disguised as motivational counsel. Herrick makes happiness sound less like a right and more like a discipline - and that’s why it still hits.
The subtext is almost combative: happiness is hard because the world is heavy, and staying "open and alive" is a choice you have to keep re-making. That phrase is doing a lot of work. "Open" is vulnerability, a willingness to be moved; "alive" is attention, the refusal to sleepwalk through days. Herrick, a 17th-century poet shaped by civil upheaval and religious pressure, isn’t naive about suffering. He’s arguing that the remarkable human trick is not endurance alone but animation - keeping the inner sensorium switched on when history and habit conspire to dull it.
Calling the pursuit of happiness "the greatest feat" quietly demotes other masculine-era ideals: conquest, honor, even salvation. It’s a radical revaluation disguised as motivational counsel. Herrick makes happiness sound less like a right and more like a discipline - and that’s why it still hits.
Quote Details
| Topic | Happiness |
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