備えあれば憂いなし (better safe than sorry)

A classical proverb from the Chinese 書経 ('Book of Documents'), meaning 'if you are prepared, you will have no worry' — the Japanese equivalent of 'better safe than sorry' / 'forewarned is forearmed.' The うれい ('worry, calamity') is commonly written 憂い (modern) or 患い (older/variant); both spellings refer to the same classical idiom.