Why attribute it to men that women are not learned? By what laws, what edicts, what regulations have they forbidden them from opening their eyes and reading, from retaining what they have read, and from giving an account of it in their conversation or in their works? Have they not rather established this custom themselves of not being knowledgeable, either because of the weakness of their constitution, or the indolence of their esprit, or the care of their beauty, or a certain flightiness that prevents them from following a long study through, or a talent and genius only for handiwork, or the distractions that come from domestic avocations, or a natural estrangement from difficult and serious things, or a curiosity very distinct from what satisfies esprit, or a completely different taste than for exercising their memory? But whatever cause men may give for the ignorance of women, they are fortunate that women, who rule them in so many other things, don't have this advantage over them at least.

 We regard a learned woman in the same way people regard a beautiful piece of armor: it is artistically chiselled, has an admirable polish, and shows exquisite workmanship; it is kept in the cabinet as part of a collection, which one shows to people who are curious, which is not used, which is not taken when going to war nor when hunting, no more than a horse immediately out of riding-school, though the best instructed in the world.

 If knowledge and wisdom are united in a single person, I do not ask about his or her sex, I admire; and if you tell me that a wise woman doesn't think of becoming learned, or that a learned woman is hardly wise, you have already forgotten what you have just read, that women are only discouraged from knowledge by certain faults: therefore, conclude that the less they have these faults, the wiser they would be, and that a wise woman would only be more fit for becoming learned, or that a learned woman, only being such because she has been able to conquer very many weaknesses, is only wiser for it.