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.

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