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