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.

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