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.

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