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.

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