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.

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