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