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.

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