“Better is halfe a lofe than no bread.”
John Heywood (1497–1580) English writer known for plays, poems and a collection of proverbs
Part I, chapter 11.
Proverbs (1546), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: Throw no gyft agayne at the geuers head,
For better is halfe a lofe than no bread.