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.

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