Karma quotes are all around you: “What goes around comes around.” “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” “You get back the same energy you put out.” “You reap what you sow.” Over the millennia, people have come up with many different ways to talk about the type of cosmic justice that says people are fated to get what they deserve—good or bad. People who believe in this call it karma, generally speaking, and see it as a way of making life fair, at least in the end.
But the word “karma” comes from Hindu and Buddhist practices and is specifically talking about how a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence decide their fate in future lives. Rather than being just an act of revenge, it encourages people to take responsibility for their actions and to expect and accept the consequences. And it’s not always a bad thing, as these true stories of good karma prove.
Religious or secular, karma can be one of those hard-to-define things that fall into the “you know it when you see it” category. These karma quotes will get you thinking about what you believe about the concept of karma, how it works in your life, and how it affects your actions. If you’re seeking greater enlightenment and inspiration, meditate on positive affirmations to bring you joy and read up on truth quotes, good morning quotes, Monday motivation quotes, Bible quotes, and spiritual quotes.
What goes around comes around, karma quotes
1. “Live a good and honorable life. Then, when you are older, you can look back and enjoy it a second time.” —Dalai Lama
2. “When you truly understand karma, then you realize you are responsible for everything in your life.” —Keanu Reeves
3. “It is impossible to build one’s own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings.” —Daisaku Ikeda
4. “The universe does not carry debts. It always returns back to you what you gave it.” ―Drishti Bablani
5. “People pay for what they do, and, still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.” —James Baldwin
6. “Realize that everything connects to everything else.” —Leonardo da Vinci
7. “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” —Wayne Dyer
8. “There are the waves, and there is the wind, seen and unseen forces. Everyone has these same elements in their lives, the seen and unseen, karma and free will.” —Kuan Yin
9. “Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.” —Edwin Hubbell Chapin
10. “Your believing or not believing in karma has no effect on its existence, nor on its consequences to you. Just as a refusal to believe in the ocean would not prevent you from drowning.” —F. Paul Wilson
11. “Sometimes you get what’s coming around. And sometimes you are what’s coming around.” ―Jim Butcher
12. “But this was what happened when you didn’t want to visit and confront the past: The past starts visiting and confronting you.” —Bret Easton Ellis
13. “This is your karma. You do not understand now, but you will understand later.” —H. Raven Rose
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14. “Before you act, you have freedom, but after you act, the effect of that action will follow you whether you want it to or not. That is the law of karma.” —Paramahansa Yogananda
15. “If your actions were to boomerang back on you instantly, would you still act the same?” —Alexandra Katehakis
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The best way to get love is to give it, these karma quotes say
16. “Most times, how you treat your children is how they grow up to treat you.” —Terry Mark
17. “The more love you give away, the more love you will receive.” —Unknown
18. “When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it’s because of karma, some past connection.” —Richard Gere
19. “Even chance meetings … are the result of karma. …things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence.” —Haruki Murakami
20. “The love you send into the world, you will find, is the love that returns to you.” ―Avina Celeste
21. “When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blossoms.” —Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
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22. “Everyone gets dumped, and everyone gets hurt, and there’s karma to love in regards to what you’ve done to other people.” —Marina and the Diamonds
23. “When the karma of a relationship is done, only love remains. Let go. It’s safe.” —Elizabeth Gilbert
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You reap what you sow, or so these karma quotes believe
24. “There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life—happiness, freedom, and peace of mind—are always attained by giving them to someone else.” —Peyton Conway March
25. “Men are not punished for their sins but by them.” —Kin Hubbard
26. “Karma: getting what you deserve and deserving what you get.” —Unknown
27. “Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. —Buddha
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28. “Karma is extremely efficient, if one is extremely patient.” ―Efrat Cybulkiewicz
29. “By each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” —David Mitchell
30. “Karma is justice. It does not reward or punish, because we have to earn all that we receive.” —Mary T. Brown
31. “It’s called karma, and it’s pronounced ha ha.” —Unknown
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Karma is the best revenge
32. “There’s a natural law of karma that vindictive people, who go out of their way to hurt others, will end up broke and alone.” —Sylvester Stallone
33. “If you’re really a mean person, you’re going to come back as a fly and eat poop.” —Kurt Cobain
34. “You cannot do harm to someone because someone has done harm to you. You will pay just like they will.” —Ericka Williams
35. “When karma comes back to punch you in the face, I want to be there. Just in case it needs help.” —Unknown
36. “That game of consequences to which we all sit down, the hanger-back not least.” —Robert Louis Stevenson
37. “I want revenge, but I don’t want to screw up my karma.” —Susan Colasanti
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38. “Often when someone hurts you, they aren’t hurting you because you are you. They are hurting you because they are them.” —Karen Salmansohn
39. “Karma is a tricky thing. To serve karma, one must repay good karma to others. To serve karma well, one must sometimes deliver bad karma where it is due.” —M.R. Mathias
40. “Karma is like a rubber band. You can only stretch it so far before it comes back and smacks you in the face.” —Unknown
41. “Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.” ―Arthur Conan Doyle
42. “You might have burned me with your lies, but karma is about to set you on fire.” —Unknown
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Kindness is the ultimate karma
Need kindness in your life? According to these karma quotes, you get what you give.
43. “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
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44. “I never kill insects. If I see ants or spiders in the room, I pick them up and take them outside. Karma is everything.” —Holly Valance
45. “When you carry out acts of kindness, you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, ‘Yes, this is how I ought to feel.'” —Harold Kushner
46. “Show a little faith in someone when they need it. It’s amazing how it comes back around to you.” ―Garon Whited
47. “Remember to honor the hand which reached out for you when you needed it, by being that hand to someone else who is struggling.” ―Greg Dutilly
48. “In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for his own misdeeds. The man who remembers this will be angry with no one, indignant with no one, revile no one, blame no one, offend no one, hate no one.” ―Epictetus
49. “The meaning of karma is in the intention. The intention behind action is what matters.” —The Bhagavad Gita
50. “If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.” —Buddha
Now that you’ve been inspired by these karma quotes, check out some quotes about change that will make you optimistic about the future.
