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.

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