--- Blaise Pascal, in a letter in a collection called “Lettres Provinciales” in the year 1657
From QuoteInvestigator:
The first known instance in the English language was a sentence translated from a text written by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. The French statement appeared in a letter in a collection called “Lettres Provinciales” in the year 1657:1 2 3
Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
Here is one possible modern-day translation of Pascal’s statement. Note that the term “one” refers to the letter itself.
I have made this one longer only because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.
