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.

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