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.

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