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