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