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