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.

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