“And this proposition is generally true for all progressions and for all prime numbers; the proof of which I would send to you, if I were not afraid to be too long.”

— Pierre de Fermat

Et cette proposition est généralement vraie en toutes progressions et en tous nombres premiers; de quoi je vous envoierois la démonstration, si je n'appréhendois d'être trop long.
Fermat (in a letter dated October 18, 1640 to his friend and confidant Frénicle de Bessy) commenting on his statement that p divides a<sup> p−1</sup> − 1 whenever p is prime and a is coprime to p (this is what is now known as Fermat's little theorem).

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Pierre de Fermat5

French mathematician and lawyer 1601–1665

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“And this proposition is generally true for all progressions and for all prime numbers; the proof of which I would send to you, if I were not afraid to be too long.”

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