One may draw a dragon or a tiger, but it is hard to draw their skeletons; one may know a person’s face but it is hard to know his heart.
—Chinese proverb.
The dragon wing of night o’erspreads the earth.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
The old dragon underground,
In straiter limits bound,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway,
And, wroth to see his kingdom fail,
Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.
—John Milton (1608–1674)