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.

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