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.

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