“Nothing is lost to you by being polite. You can be polite and courteous without losing anything.”

“Politeness is good only in social relations, because to be polite in literary or academic [matters] would be to be dishonest. Ipinasa mo out of politeness? Our of kwan to the father or...No!”

“No matter how good a President you are, if the historian is hostile to you, he will emphasize your errors and break down your merits... without departing from the facts.”

“In the time of writing you have to forget the present, if you can do that. Try to live in the period you are writing.”

“You see, this is one big defect of many people... They see nothing good in people they don't like. And this is dangerous.”

“Who is this historian who can say that he's telling the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth. Nobody, because you're human.”

“I said that great men had a sense of history. But when you say you have a great sense of history it does not follow that you are great.”