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.

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