“Karma” is a concept in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism that refers to the idea that a person’s actions have consequences in this life and in future lives. It is often described as the law of cause and effect, where good actions lead to good consequences and bad actions lead to bad consequences.

In popular usage, the term “karma” is sometimes used more broadly to refer to the idea that a person will eventually face the consequences of their actions, regardless of whether those consequences occur in this life or in some future existence. The idea is often used to suggest that what goes around comes around and that people should strive to do good in the world to create positive consequences for themselves and others.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

43. “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

51. “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

52. “Is Fate getting what you deserve, or deserving what you get?”
— Jodi Picoult

53. “A boomerang returns back to the person that throws it.”
— Vera Nazarian

54. “I want revenge, but I don’t want to screw up my karma.”
— Susan Colasanti

55. “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”
— Wayne Dyer

56. “Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.”
— Elbert Hubbard

57. “Nobody deserves misery but sometimes it’s just your turn.”
— Unknown

58. “By each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
— David Mitchell

59. “I must have killed a lot of cows in a past life for Karma to hate me this much.”
— Katie McGarry

60. “Not only is there often a right and wrong but what goes around does come around. Karma exists.”
— Donald Van de Mark

61. “Those who pray for your downfall are concentrating negative thoughts towards you.”
— Michael Bassey Johnson

62. “It’s already bad. I’m honestly not sure how much worse it’s going to get.”
— Cat Adams

63. “Treat other people’s home as you want them to respect yours because what goes around comes around.”
— Ana Monnar

64. “Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles.”
— Dalai Lama

65. “I heard that karma is vengeful and is also a light sleeper.”
— Rudy Francisco

66. “You have to be careful when involving yourself with someone else’s karma.”
— Brownell Landrum

67. “If you give a good thing to the world, then over time your karma will be good, and you’ll receive good.”
— Russell Simmons

68. “Dear Karma, I really hate you right now, you made your point.”
— Ottilie Weber