巴西数论家Paulo Ribenboim在Fermat's last theorem for amateurs的开头，为读者写了半页“声明”，很有意思。他强烈感到，应该把个人证明费马大定理（FLT）的权利写进宪法的人权章节（It should be written in the Constitution of States and Nations, in the Chapter of Human Rights）：提出自己的FLT证明是每个人不可剥夺的权利（It is an inalienable right of each individual to produce his or her own proof of Fermat’s last theorem）。

不过，考虑到以下两点，这个严正申明的意义会被大打折扣：

Art.1. No attempted proof of THE theorem should ever duplicate a previous one.

Art.2. It is a criminal offense to submit false proofs of THE theorem to professors who arduously earn their living by teaching how not to conceive false proofs of THE theorem.

第一条说不得重复前人的证明，这是当然的。

第二条说，不能把错误的证明拿给专靠教人不鼓捣错误证明吃饭的教授们。

第二条很重要，令我想起阿西莫夫在一本说数字（或数学？）的小书里讲过的话，大概意思：千万别把您的证明寄给我看，因为我水平不够，没法儿找出它的错误。

Paulo最后说，违背第二条的人将直接进地狱，只有等他学会了Wiles的证明才能重回天堂（Infringement of the latter, leads directly to Hell. Return to Paradise only after the said criminal has understood and is able to reproduce Wiles’ proof）——这也许是天下最酷的惩罚了（Harsh punishment），比约翰逊博士罚人去编字典要痛苦而有趣得多。