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.

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