Author and Soviet Union prison camp survivor Alexander Solzhenitsyn died on August 3, 2008, at age 89. Solzhenitsyn, so full of wisdom, has often been quoted. On June 8, 1978, while addressing the 1978 graduating class of Harvard University, he offered one of his more memorable thoughts:

Harvard's motto is "Veritas," [Latin for truth]. Many of you have already found out, and others will find out in the course of their lives, that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate with total attention on its pursuit. And even while it eludes us, the illusion still lingers of knowing it and leads to many misunderstandings. Also, truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter.