“To be a bandit is better than to be a slave!”

"What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
1930s
Context: I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty and the democratic form is as bad as any of the other forms.
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech — alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I —But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

Eminent Indians (1947)
Context: We must respect our own dignity as rational beings and thus diminish the power of fraud. It is better to be free than be a slave, better to know than to be ignorant. It is reason that helps us to reject what is falsely taught and believed about God, that He is a detective officer or a capricious despot or a glorified schoolmaster. It is essential that we should subject religious beliefs to the scrutiny of reason.

Babak Khorramdin's letter to his son, rejecting the caliph’s amnesty message, quoted by Al-Tabari, edited by C. E. Bosworth, History of al-Tabari Vol. 33, The: Storm and Stress along the Northern Frontiers of the 'Abbasid Caliphate: The Caliphate of al-Mu'tasim A.D. 833-842/A.H. 218-227 https://books.google.com/books?id=Ky2rl0xN2SQC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=%22Better+to+live+for+just+a+single+day+as+a+ruler+than+to+live+for+forty+years+as+an+abject+slave.%22&source=bl&ots=D6-WGySNBR&sig=9MJm8qw6MeNgY1kPHEjtcxA_okY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAmoVChMI2YO62Pb0xwIVjOwUCh2l8APi#v=onepage&q=%22Better%20to%20live%20for%20just%20a%20single%20day%20as%20a%20ruler%20than%20to%20live%20for%20forty%20years%20as%20an%20abject%20slave.%22&f=false

Source: Babak Khorramdin's letter to his son, rejecting the caliph’s amnesty message, quoted by Al-Tabari, edited by C. E. Bosworth, History of al-Tabari Vol. 33, The: Storm and Stress along the Northern Frontiers of the 'Abbasid Caliphate: The Caliphate of al-Mu'tasim A.D. 833-842/A.H. 218-227 https://books.google.com/books?id=Ky2rl0xN2SQC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=%22Better+to+live+for+just+a+single+day+as+a+ruler+than+to+live+for+forty+years+as+an+abject+slave.%22&source=bl&ots=D6-WGySNBR&sig=9MJm8qw6MeNgY1kPHEjtcxA_okY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAmoVChMI2YO62Pb0xwIVjOwUCh2l8APi#v=onepage&q=%22Better%20to%20live%20for%20just%20a%20single%20day%20as%20a%20ruler%20than%20to%20live%20for%20forty%20years%20as%20an%20abject%20slave.%22&f=false

"Free Hope" p. 131.
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (1844)
Context: Thou art greatly wise, my friend, and ever respected by me, yet I find not in your theory or your scope, room enough for the lyric inspirations, or the mysterious whispers of life. To me it seems that it is madder never to abandon oneself, than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive, and a slave, than always to walk in armor.

Source: Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery (1787), p. 4

No. 10, line 9
Holy Sonnets (1633)

Ils etaient plus que rois; ils sont moindres qu'esclaves.
Sertorius, act III, scene i
Sertorius describes Roman citizens after they had fallen under tyranny.
Sertorius (1662)

Source: Popular Political Economy: Four lectures delivered at the London Mechanics Institution (1827), p. 31