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.

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