Truth is beyond Fearlessness, it is Truthfulness. Voltaire was not one to merely set up an idol and leave it to your choice to follow, Voltaire destroyed the existing idols by setting his idol above the preexisting idols. He not only set up Sir. Isaac Newton but destroyed the conquerors by setting up Newton above the Caesar, Alexander, Tamerlane, or Cromwell. How Cromwell made it to that list should not be read ejudsem generis, but as referring to a contemporary, hence to each and everyone.

Not long ago,” said Voltaire, “a distinguished company were discussing the trite and frivolous question” (alas, this is an untimely quotation!), “who was the greatest man Caesar, Alexander, Tamerlane, or Cromwell? Someone an-swered that without doubt it was Isaac Newton. And right-ly: for it is to him who masters our minds by the force of truth, and not to those who enslave them by violence, that we owe our reverence.”