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.

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