Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.

Aesop (620?-560? BC) Legendary Greek storyteller

Fables [Aesopica], “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” (6th C BC) [tr. Jacobs (1894)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:

• "The Difference betwixt a Court and a Country Life. The Delights, Innocence, and Security of the One, Compar'd with the Anxiety, the Lewdness, and the Hazards of the Other." [tr. L'Estrange (1692)]
• "Give me my barley-bread in peace and security before the daintiest feast where Fear and Care are in waiting." [tr. James (1848)]
• "A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety."

Compare to Proverbs 17:1 "Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife."