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There is scarcely any one who states purely arithmetical questions, scarcely any who understands them. Is this not because arithmetic has been treated up to this time geometrically rather than arithmetically?

— Pierre de Fermat Letter to Frénicle (1657)

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More quotes by Pierre de Fermat

I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem which this margin is too small to contain.

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.

It is impossible for the cube to be written as a sum of two cubes or a fourth power to be written as a sum of two fourth powers or, in general for any number which is any number which is a power greater than the second to be written as a sum of two like powers. I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.

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