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.

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