Walk of Life

What is the meaning and origin of the idiom "from all walks of life"?  When people talk about walk(s) of life, they are referring to different types of jobs and different levels of society. "The club has members from all walks of life."

The phrase "people from all walks of life" is often used informally to convey that a group of people consists of individuals from diverse backgrounds and occupations. It can also bring to mind the idea that people from all socioeconomic classes and ways of living are represented

OED's earliest evidence for "walk of life" is from 1733, in the writing of Eustace Budgell.

But why is it a "walk" of life? I found no explanation. My guess would be that each life is a journey and walking is one, especially in the 1700s, way of moving through the day and your life. 

Collective Soul

Collective Soul - 2016 in Camden, New Jersey  Link

Collective Soul is an American rock band that consists of the brothers Ed (lead vocalist) and Dean Roland (rhythm guitarist), Will Turpin (bassist), Johnny Rabb (drummer), and Jesse Triplett (lead guitarist). Formed in 1992, the original lineup consisted of the Roland brothers, Turpin, guitarist Ross Childress, and drummer Shane Evans. 

In 1993, Roland's song "Shine" from the Rising Storm label release of Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid became an underground hit and created a new band lineup.

Ed Roland was reading Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead and came across the phrase "collective soul." In the novel, "collective soul" is a threat to the main character's sense of individualism. Roland has said that the choice was not in support of "Ayn Rand, objectivism, egoism, or anything...we just dug the name."

ALBUMS
Collective Soul

Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid

Dosage

Afterwords

7even Year Itch: Greatest Hits, 1994-2001

Riding Shotgun

 

Joan Weldon & Randolph Scott in RIDING SHOTGUN

The term "riding shotgun" originates in the early 1700s and for almost two centuries it literally meant a person riding beside the driver of a stagecoach or other vehicle armed with a weapon, A shotgun was the original weapon of choice as it offered a better chance of hitting a robber from a moving vehicle on rough roads at speed.

Armed guards positioned beside drivers continued long after stagecoaches were replaced by motorized vehicles. 

The term gained popularity in movies like Stagecoach (1939) and Riding Shotgun (1954). 

Andy Devine & George Bancroft STAGECOACH

By the 1960s, it had entered into American culture as a common way to claim the front passenger seat with the phrase "I call shotgun."