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on the side of the angels



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Idioms and Phrases

Supporting the good side, as in Whatever you may think of him, on important issues he's usually on the side of the angels . This expression was coined by Benjamin Disraeli in 1864 in a speech about Darwin's theory that man is descended from apes: “The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? Now I am on the side of the angels.” Before long it was extended to broader use, specifically to the moral view.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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