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.

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