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.

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