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.

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