What does 'on the side of the angels' mean?
To be 'on the side of the angels' is to stand for the higher, moral view — from Disraeli's Oxford speech of 25 November 1864: 'The question is, is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels.' Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), human-proofread transcription on English Wikisource records: “Punch , Dec. 10, 1864, contains a cartoon of Disraeli, dressing for an Oxford bal masqué , as an angel, and underneath the cartoon are these words— 1 "The question is, is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels."— Disraeli's Oxford Speech, Friday, Nov. 25 (1864).”
Origin
- Verbatim from Brewer's (1898): Punch , Dec. 10, 1864, contains a cartoon of Disraeli, dressing for an Oxford bal masqué , as an angel, and underneath the cartoon are these words— 1 "The question is, is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels."— Disraeli's Oxford Speech, Friday, Nov. 25 (1864).
How to use it
- Modern usage: To be 'on the side of the angels' is to stand for the higher, moral view — from Disraeli's Oxford speech of 25 November 1864: 'The question is, is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels.'
- When quoting the origin, cite Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — this is a 19th-century record, not a modern etymology.
Source:
Last verified: 2026-07-18
- Definitions and origins are drawn from public-domain reference works, primarily Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), with modern usage notes clearly marked.