“Happy those early days, when I
Shined in my angel-infancy!
Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race.”

— Henry Vaughan

"The Retreat," l. 1.
Silex Scintillans (1655)

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Henry Vaughan 23

Welsh author, physician and metaphysical poet 1621–1695

William Mountford (1816–1885) English Unitarian preacher and author

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 438.

“I hated my life when I was going through those early days and having to deal with drunken musicians and drugged musicians. I hated it.”

Anne Murray (1945) Canadian singer

On her early career in the 1960s, as quoted in "Anne Murray says farewell with All of Me", CBC Arts, CBC.ca, 29 October 2009 https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/anne-murray-says-farewell-with-all-of-me-1.806879

“What is the question now placed before society with the glib assurance the most astounding? That question is this—Is man an ape or an angel? My lord, I am on the side of the angels.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Variant: The question is this— Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence these new fanged theories.
Variant: Is man an ape or an angel? Now, I am on the side of the angels!
Source: Speech at Oxford Diocesan Conference (25 November 1864), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 108

“I was in my youth and in the days of my intoxication extravagance and excitement that unveiling of the angelic world and the manifestation of the wonders of power took place in my heart, spirit, conscience and intellect.”

Ruzbihan Baqli (1128–1209) Persian poet, mystic, and Sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002), p. 112

“What is the question now placed before society with the glib assurance the most astounding? That question is this— Is man an ape or an angel? My lord, I am on the side of the angels.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

1860s
Variant: The question is this— Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence these new fanged theories.
Variant: Is man an ape or an angel? Now, I am on the side of the angels!
Speech at Oxford Diocesan Conference (25 November 1864), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (London: John Murray, 1929), p. 108.

“I venture to claim two qualifications for the great office which I hold, which to my mind, without making invidious distinctions, is one of the most important that can be held by any Englishman; and those qualifications are that in the first place I believe in the British Empire, and in the second place I believe in the British race. I believe that the British race is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen.”

Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) British businessman, politician, and statesman

Speech given to the Imperial Institute (11 November 1895), quoted in "Mr. Chamberlain On The Australian Colonies", The Times (12 November 1895), p. 6
1890s