Most of these proverbs were collected by S.Coffin and he kindly gave me permission to publish the list. Some of these proverbs were merged into the Internet Go Dictionary.

The aphorisms by Pierre Audouard appeared between 1994 and 1995 in the French Go Review under the title "Some words about Go", and signed by Jean de Laveline (pseudonym of Pierre Audouard) and were translated by Tom Keel.

By default the proverbs are shown in a predefined order Alternatively, you can have them shuffled (the order is randomized) or ordered by author.

• Dead group? Always win ko fights!  --  anonymous
• Grab the border point between two moyos  --  anonymous
• From a cross-cut, extend  --  anonymous
• Thickness? Ladders always work! [or don't work if it belongs to your opponent!]  --  anonymous
• Everything happens on a grid-engraved board with black and white pieces, but if that's all you see then you don't know Go.
  Audouard, Pierre
• In the sound of the stone your can hear its purpose.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Very few good moves are played.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Groups mustn't float  --  anonymous
• Don't make empty triangles  --  anonymous
• Always remember, keep the balance (between territory and influence)
  Figaro
• Play slow, win slow; play fast, lose fast  --  anonymous
• The book says don't fight (The pen is mightier than the sword). But what else can be expected from a book (written by a pen)?  --  anonymous
• Six eyes in a rectangle are alive  --  anonymous
• Big groups never die  --  anonymous
• A meijin needs no joseki  --  anonymous
• Avoid the plate connection  --  anonymous
• If black doesn't pile up enough errors to lose, then it will soon be time to lower the handicap.
  Audouard, Pierre
• If you have lost four corners, resign  --  anonymous
• Only amateurs try to come up with fancy moves  --  anonymous
• Contesting, destabilizing, and threatening are sources of transformation.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Don't defend - extend!
  Taylor, Bill
• Be a little patient. Keshi works!  --  anonymous
• There is damezumari at the bamboo joint  --  anonymous
• The second line is the line of defeat, the third line is the line of territory, and the fourth line is the line of influence  --  anonymous
• More haste less speed.
  Fairbairn, John
• Don't try to enclose an open skirt  --  anonymous
• (A shicho works or doesn't work, but sometimes you don't see it, you don't play it). The possible and the impossible are visible and invisible. What happens is always what you see, what is played.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Don't disturb symmetry  --  anonymous
• Proverbs do not apply to White.
  Sand, Tero
• Don't make dango's  --  anonymous
• Answer the keima with a kosumi  --  anonymous
• Beginner's games are surprising, often incoherent and incomprehensible. When you improve, your game gains in consistency but flirts with stupidity: you become satisfied with truisms and mechanical movements, you try to obtain a feeling for clearness and style the easy way.
  Audouard, Pierre
• There is a thin line between thick and slow.
  jansteen
• If you have one stone on the third line, add another, then abandon both of them  --  anonymous
• Everything would seem to be possible in go. Like pulling a rabbit, by a magical move, out of a hat.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Balance is not what players strive for, and if it does arise, it is in spite of them.
  Audouard, Pierre
• To emphasize the lack of determination in his moves, one speaks of chance.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Win the stones, lose the game  --  anonymous
• Don't be greedy!  --  anonymous
• There is no territory in the centre  --  anonymous
• Grab the 4th point of the bamboo joint.
  Taylor, Bill
• Keep away from thickness  --  anonymous
• The poor player plays the opponent's game for him  --  anonymous
• Beware of going back to patch up your plays  --  anonymous
• Make a fist before striking
  Kim, Jay H.
• Shoulder connections, hanging connections, and knight's move connections  --  anonymous
• Don't count territory held by only one eye!  --  anonymous
• There are lines, like roots, that plunge into the stone and shatter it.
  Audouard, Pierre
• The rectangular six is normally alive  --  anonymous
• Fighting must not be the key to go, it should be reserved as your last resource.
  zhong-pu liu, 1078 AD
• Hane? Extend! Make it a habit  --  anonymous
• With only one group, you will win  --  anonymous
• If you don't know ladders, don't play go  --  anonymous
• Add one stone, then sacrifice both  --  anonymous
• If there is no stone on the handicap point, the carpenter's square is dead  --  anonymous
• You must always consider the circumstances. Nothing is identical, yet things repeat.
  Audouard, Pierre
• You can hide nothing on the goban.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Eyes win semiais  --  anonymous
• For the comb formation in the corner, dame is necessary  --  anonymous
• Turn, turn, turn!
  Taylor, Bill
• The comb formation is alive  --  anonymous
• Sacrifice and squeeze  --  anonymous
• One big eye kills one small eye  --  anonymous
• Don't overlook the edge of the board  --  anonymous
• This time and this space have certain properties, and for a long time, to progress means to become familiar with them.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Strange things happen at the one-two points  --  anonymous
• Territory really exists only in the end.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Don't reduce your own liberties.
  Taylor, Bill
• Go is essentially a form of harmony. Go in the 21st century will have to be go of the 'harmony of the six points - the four quarters, the above and the below.' As in life we will need to view the whole rather than the part. Japanese go has focused too heavily on the local (joseki) rather than the whole for 300 years. The reason the Chinese and Koreans are overtaking the Japanese is that they are closer to achieving this whole-board view.
  Go Seigen, 9p, 1994
• Beware of the clumsy double contact  --  anonymous
• There are players who clack down ridiculous moves. Certain others place their moves with crisp, dry contact, like bones cracking. Still others drop their stones with a soft sound.
  Audouard, Pierre
• To reduce an opponent's large prospective territory, strike at the shoulder  --  anonymous
• If there is a ko inside a semeai, capture it on the final play  --  anonymous
• Pon-nuki is worth thirty points  --  anonymous
• Sacrifice small to take large  --  anonymous
• Those who are good at making shape don't usually fight.
  zhang, 1078 AD
• From the way the players perceive what can happen and what shouldn't happen springs what happens.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Keshi is worth as much as an invasion!  --  anonymous
• Josekis are not fixed, definitive things. They indicate the moments when everything can change.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Learning josekis by heart is useless if you don't try departing from them.
  Audouard, Pierre
• If you lose by one point, take a rest  --  anonymous
• Five groups might live but the sixth will die  --  anonymous
• Win the early ko to win the game  --  anonymous
• White is always trying to kill a bigger group than black is trying to save  --  anonymous
• If one player chooses influence, the other player may choose territory, and vice versa  --  anonymous
• Use a wall to attack, not to make territory  --  anonymous
• Conservative and slow will win. Believe it!  --  anonymous
• If your stone is capped, play the knight's move  --  anonymous
• Strange things happen at the one-two points  --  anonymous
• A basic: Don't push too hard.
  jansteen
• (Any move that follows the rules is legal). Possibilities differ according to strength.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Connect with good shape  --  anonymous
• The monkey jump is worth eight points  --  anonymous
• To do or not to do something is not determined by what is done in general, any more than by what is necessary. Doing or not doing something is determined by what you want, and to want in go is to want to win.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Fill in a semiai from the outside  --  anonymous
• In opponents' sphere of influence, avoid sharp conflict, don't move too deep
  Otake Hideo, 9p
• There is a time and a space which are the same in all go games: the alternating of black and white, and the intersections.
  Audouard, Pierre
• The intersection is rarely neutral.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Attack two weak groups simultaneously  --  anonymous
• In an unreasonable situation, an unreasonable move is reasonable
  Tamino
• Atari, atari is vulgar play  --  anonymous
• Take the cutting stone on the second line  --  anonymous
• At the head of three stones in a row, play hane  --  anonymous
• Good moves and bad moves are bedfellows  --  anonymous
• Capture what you cut off  --  anonymous
• Use the Knight's move to attack, the 1-point jump to defend  --  anonymous
• Keep sente in the opening. A premature attack loses sente  --  anonymous
• The L-group is dead  --  anonymous
• 2-1 is the vital point in the corner  --  anonymous
• One is never aware enough of the violence in go.
  Audouard, Pierre
• If a formation is symmetrical, play at the center  --  anonymous
• On the third line, four die, six live  --  anonymous
• You must incessantly question yourself about this time and this space.
  Audouard, Pierre
• The game plays itself, the players don't control it.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Stop on second, extend on third  --  anonymous
• Do not fear furikawari  --  anonymous
• Do not make moves that strengthen your opponent!  --  anonymous
• Don't make a play adjacent to a cutting-point  --  anonymous
• On the second line six die, eight live  --  anonymous
• The saki bottle shape is negative  --  anonymous
• Knight's moves win running battles  --  anonymous
• Don't play in direct contact with the opponent's stone caught in your squeeze-play  --  anonymous
• Defend weak groups, not strong groups  --  anonymous
• To invade, need 20 points in open area; otherwise, keshi is best.
  Yang Yilun, 7p
• The weak player fears ko, the strong player seeks it.
  Taylor, Bill
• It is difficult to know exactly what you are doing.
  Audouard, Pierre
• When in doubt, remove the enemy stones from the board.
  Taylor, Bill
• Nothing requires doing this or that, but necessity exists.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Empty triangles are bad  --  anonymous
• The strong player plays straight, the weak diagonally  --  anonymous
• Those who are good at winning, don't usually fight.
  zhang, 1078 AD
• Corner, side, centre  --  anonymous
• Make your own groups strong first, then attack  --  anonymous
• Attach to the strongest stone in a pincer  --  anonymous
• One point in the center is worth ten in the corner  --  anonymous
• A knight's move near the edge of the board cannot be cut.
  Taylor, Bill
• Each step in a ladder is worth 7 points  --  anonymous
• Go is a game of chance where the strong player is he who renders circumstances favorable with tricks.
  Audouard, Pierre
• In the opening, when you don't know what to play, make a shimari.
  jansteen
• Territory is a closed space where time no longer exists. The transformation around it slowly alter it, and sometimes it cracks open like a rotten egg at the least shock.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Never be too sure about your plan, and always doubt your ability to kill your opponent's stones.
  zhong-pu liu, 1078 AD
• Learn to play under the stones  --  anonymous
• Keep your own stones connected, and your opponent's apart.
  Taylor, Bill
• There are players who don't accept exchanges: they play many moves that perpetuate a previous state of the game.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Sometimes an idiotic stone loafs about the goban.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Five liberties for tactical stability  --  anonymous
• When in a winning position, keep the game simple; Make it complex only when losing  --  anonymous
• For rectangular six in the corner, dame is necessary  --  anonymous
• The ax's handle rots while the mind lives to the rhythm of the stones.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Every move brings change.
  Audouard, Pierre
• With less than 15 stones in danger, tenuki  --  anonymous
• When your opponent has two weak groups, attack them both at once  --  anonymous
• If you plan to live inside enemy territory, play directly against his stones  --  anonymous
• Keep inessential ataris till the end  --  anonymous
• Know the eye-stealing tesuji  --  anonymous
• When your opponent is thick, you must also become thick.
  Otake Hideo, 9p
• Don't make compact groups of stones  --  anonymous
• There are possible things, impossible things, and things that happen. Sometimes things happen that were impossible.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Don't get surrounded! Ever!  --  anonymous
• Grab the shape points as kikashi  --  anonymous
• Error is one of the sources of transformation.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Never try to cut bamboo joints  --  anonymous
• The nature of a game comes from what is played, but it's the sensitivity to the possible and the impossible that gives it value.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Strike at the waist of the knight's move  --  anonymous
• Ikken tobi is never wrong  --  anonymous
• If White takes all four corners, Black should resign; if Black takes all four corners, Black should also resign.
  Kent, David
• Sacrifice for shape  --  anonymous
• Learn the eye-stealing tesuji  --  anonymous
• The semeai where only one player has an eye is a fight over nothing  --  anonymous
• The carpenter's square becomes ko  --  anonymous
• Don't play on dame points, but guarantee connections  --  anonymous
• In the corner, five stones in a row on the third line are alive  --  anonymous
• When you study joseki, you lose two stones in strength  --  anonymous
• 5 lines for extension in front of shimari
  Yang Yilun, 7p
• The simplest move is the best move  --  anonymous
• Go is not a blocking game, it's a game of action.
  Audouard, Pierre
• There is death in the hane  --  anonymous
• You have to like to win, and to learn to recognize the errors that gave you the victory.
  Audouard, Pierre
• The enemy's vital point is your own  --  anonymous
• The possibility or impossibility of an event results logically from the rules.
  Audouard, Pierre
• Seek small gains but incur big losses  --  anonymous
• Don't make territory near thickness  --  anonymous
• Does white await black's errors? Certainly, in two ways: either he makes clean, clear, dangerous moves; or he makes confusing, twisted moves that are just as dangerous. The adequate answers are always difficult to find.
  Audouard, Pierre
• If you cannot succeed, then die gloriously
  Chinese proverb
• Against three in a row, play right in the center  --  anonymous
• Extend one hand from the cross-cut  --  anonymous
• There is a time for doing things.
  Audouard, Pierre
• There are times when even a fight over nothing means something  --  anonymous
• If you have won four corners, resign  --  anonymous
• At the head of two stones in a row, play hane  --  anonymous
• Don't peep at cutting points  --  anonymous
• The stone in the bowl is idiotic.
  Audouard, Pierre