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.

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