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.

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