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.

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