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.

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