They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. Bartolomé de las Casas
There is no brilliant single stroke that is going to transform the water into wine or straw into gold. Coleman Young
..scumbled froth.. ..capable of indicating a mouth, eyes, a nose with a single stroke of the brush, the rest of the face modeled by the perfect accuracy of these indications. Berthe Morisot
I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword. David Mitchell (author)
A single stroke don't fell the oak. German Proverb