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.

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