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.

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