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.

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