# 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).”

## What it means

- 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).

## Action steps

1. 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.'
2. When quoting the origin, cite Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — this is a 19th-century record, not a modern etymology.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Wikisource proofread text](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brewer%27s_Dictionary_of_Phrase_and_Fable/Side_of_the_Angels)

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