I remember that a wise friend of mine did usually say, “That which is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.”

The line appears in Izaak Walton’s devotional biography of the Anglican cleric and poet George Herbert. Walton introduces it as a remembered maxim from “a wise friend,” using it to comment on the tendency of broadly shared responsibilities to be neglected. Walton (1593–1683), best known for The Compleat Angler, also wrote influential “Lives” of prominent churchmen; his Life of Herbert (first published in 1670) blends anecdote, moral reflection, and exemplary sayings to present Herbert as a model of piety and pastoral care in the post–Civil War Restoration church.

Walton’s proverb points to a recurring social problem: when a task is assigned to everyone in general, it is effectively assigned to no one in particular. The saying captures what modern readers might call diffusion of responsibility—people assume others will act, so action is delayed or never taken. In Walton’s moralizing biographical style, the maxim functions as a caution against vague, collective duty and an implicit endorsement of personal stewardship: worthwhile work requires clear ownership, conscientious attention, and the willingness to take responsibility rather than rely on the crowd.