What goes around comes back around, aka, karma will get you. And no, we're not quoting lyrics from a Justin Timberlake song. Okay, technically, we are. Psst, where are our ‘90s babies at? However, fun fact, the phrase did originate in the USA in the early 1970s. It's one of those inspirational quotes or sayings that is timeless and universal. And a little bird might have told us you are looking for more quotes about karma... Was the birdie right? Knew it! But before we go on to quotes on karma, let's explore the concept a little. Just a teeny bit.
The history of karma actually goes back eons. The word "karma" originated from the Sanskrit word "karman," which translates to "act." It is generally believed that our choices affect our current and future quality of life. Evil deeds result in bad karma, while good deeds create positive karma. Whether you believe in karma or not, the concept is pretty straightforward. Do good - get good back. Misbehave - eat dirt for it. Simple. Although Christians don't shy away from calling it karma, the principle is very similar to the Golden Rule, which states that you should treat others the way you want to be treated.
Below, we've compiled a lengthy selection of karma quotes that will hopefully shine some light on your life and inspire you to do more good acts for others. Is there a karma quote that inspired you to do a good deed today? Let us know! Also, if you are looking for more inspiring quotes, such as quotes about gratitude, kindness, or uplifting quotes, we've got them hot and ready to be served!
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“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Everybody comes from the same source. If you hate another human being, you’re hating part of yourself.” – Elvis Presley
My guess is this is a anti-racist quote however Presley is not a good role model and, personally I would suggest hate is a very reasonable emotion in certain circumstances - a quote taken out of context perhaps. Personally I hate everyone until proven otherwise :)
“Karma is like a rubber band. You can only stretch it so far before it comes back and smacks you in the face.”
“I try to live with the idea that karma is a very real thing. So I put out what I want to get back.” – Megan Fox
“When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him. When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points.”
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank
“I do not believe in karma. However, I practice it everyday because it tricks me into being a better person!” ― Clint Diffie
“You cannot do harm to someone because someone has done harm to you. You will pay just like they will.” - Ericka Williams
“What goes around comes back around.”
“If you’re really a mean person you’re going to come back as a fly and eat poop.” - Kurt Cobain
Fortunately, it doesn't work that way. Not as a fly that is - your soul will choose to seek balance though, and the resultant life may have unpleasantness as a result. Every decision you make alters your path, so it is best to choose to act from a place of love.
“Your karma is your unfinished spiritual business. On a soul level, it’s your to-do list.” ― Catherine Carrigan
“For the keynote of the law of Karma is equilibrium, and nature is always working to restore that equilibrium whenever through man’s acts it is disturbed.”
“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
Our souls plan the main events of our lives before we incarnate, in order to meet obligations, correct bad spiritual habits and to work on better ones. As well, we work to help other souls in their lives likewise, and also other entities like your chosen community, the Earth itself. Karma is only a part of that. Hitler, for example, did not incarnate to be the monster he became, but to transform his country for the better. He transformed it alright but his "down here" ego lead him astray into being too influenced by the paranoia and negative stereotypes and prejudices of his upbringing - these ultimately lead him to his despicable dogma and acts. Those young souls who espouse such even now, should take this as a warning.
“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
“Don’t send me flowers when I’m dead. If you like me, send them while I’m alive.” – Brian Clough
“We must always reflect only what we wish to see reflected within us.” ― Robin Sacredfire
"Some day people will ask me what is the key to my success… and I will simply say, “Good Karma.”" – K. Crumley
“You have to be very careful when involving yourself with someone else’s karma.” – Brownell Landrum
“Treat other people’s homes as you want them to respect yours because what goes around comes around.” – Ana Monnar
“Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles.” - Dalai Lama XIV
“You have to be careful when involving yourself with someone else’s karma.” - Brownell Landrum
“As long as karma exists, the world changes. There will always be karma to be taken care of.” - Nina Hagen
“Realize that everything connects to everything else.” - Leonardo Da Vinci
It all came from the same source - and all is composed of the same stuff (energy) interlaced through any dimensions.
“Karma, simply put, is an action for an action, good or bad.” - Stephen Richards
But it is not the main determinant of one's lives - one's free will and choice to act of love well outweigh karma.
“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
“Every action has the equal and opposite reaction. This is the law of the universe and spares none. Wrong done and injustice inflicted are paid back in the same coin. No one has escaped the justice of the universe. It is only a matter of time.” - Anil Sinha
Therefore, it is imperative that we ALL act from a place of love. Then we ALL move forward.
“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
“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.” - Thích Nhất Hạnh
“Karma, memory, and desire are just the software of the soul. It’s conditioning that the soul undergoes in order to create experience. And it’s a cycle. In most people, the cycle is a conditioned response. They do the same things over and over again.” — Deepak Chopra
“Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.” - Tryon Edwards
“Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself.”
“Do something good today and in the future you will get repaid with something good too. Do something good. Get something good.”
It's not that clearcut plus sometimes the balance does not happen in the same life.
“Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.” - Edwin Hubbel Chapin
“You can’t get there alone. People have to help you, and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth, by being earnest.” — Randy Pausch
Honesty and enthusiasm are two forms of love. We get "there" (beyond the need for further incarnation) by helping each other - for really we are one.
“You must acknowledge and experience this part of the universe. Karma is intricate, too vast. You would, with your limited human senses, consider it too unfair. But you have tools to really, truly love. Loving the children is very important. But love everyone as you would love your children.” – Kuan Yin
“When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it’s because of karma, some past connection.” – Richard Gere
“Karma is not just about the troubles, but also about surmounting them.” - Rick Springfield
“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
This how EVERYBODY deserves to feel. It echoes from the soul state of existence.
“The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.” - Frederick Buechner
Like ripples in a pond - and you cannot know, in your current limited state - what shores those ripples will touch, and then rebound from to touch further shores. Therefore, act from love.
“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins
“Even if things don’t unfold the way you expected, don’t be disheartened or give up.” – Daisaku Ikeda
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“The love you send into the world, you will find, is the love that returns to you.” ― Avina Celeste
“The universe does not carry debts, it always returns back to you what you gave it.” ― Drishti Bablani
“No one can escape karma. Two events that may, at first, seem disconnected can be karmically connected. After all, karma works on a spiritual level which may manifest itself physically in a myriad of seemingly unrelated ways.” ― Charbel Tadros
“It is a rule of life that we eventually become victims of the evil we do to others.” ― Wayne Gerard Trotman
“Show a little faith in someone when they need it. It’s amazing how it comes back around to you.” ― Garon Whited
“The thing you know as Karma does not really exist the way you think. It can only exist through the law of causality, which means when you make efforts to achieve something, the results do indeed occur, given enough time, resources, and above all, perseverance.” ― Abhijit Naskar
“The tired wisdom of knowing that what goes around eventually comes around.” – Arundhati Roy
“I don’t have any reason to hate anybody; I believe in good karma and spreading good energy.” – Vanilla Ice
“Things don’t just happen in this world of arising and passing away. We don’t live in some kind of crazy, accidental universe. Things happen according to certain laws, laws of nature. Laws such as the law of karma, which teaches us that as a certain seed gets planted, so will that fruit be.” – Sharon Salzberg
“Nobody deserves misery but sometimes it’s just your turn.”
We didn't choose to incarnate in order to experience misery, but if it comes - then only you can choose whether the misery harms you. What good can you do for others who may be the same place? When you lift others up, you too are elevated.
“I must have killed a lot of cows in a past life for karma to hate me this much.” - Katie McGarry
“Those who pray for your downfall are concentrating negative thoughts towards you.” - Michael Bassey Johnson
Which reflect more to THEM than to you. Such energies are neutralised by your thoughts and acts of love. Best of all - send THEM love, then you will have risen above the temptation to vengeance.
“Treat other people’s home as you want them to respect yours because what goes around comes around.” - Ana Monnar
“If you give a good thing to the world, then over time your karma will be good, and you’ll receive good.” - Russell Simmons
You are always receiving good things but may not recognise them as such.
“I believe in Karma. If the good is sown, the good is collected. When positive things are made, that returns well.”- Yannick Noah
“Karma moves in two directions. If we act virtuously, the seed we plant will result in happiness. If we act non-virtuously, suffering results.” – Sakyong Mipham
“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.” - Edith Wharton
“Karma is our teacher. It teaches us to refine our behavior–hopefully sooner rather than later. One way to tell a young soul from an old soul is to observe how quickly he learns karma’s lessons in life.”
“Lots of people say they believe in karma. Most of them just believe in revenge.” ― Chris Bonnello
Such persons tend to believe that OTHERS are due payback but seldom see themselves as deserving recipients of same! That's not how it works.
“Karma bides its time. You will always have to watch out. Karma is unforgiving and always gets payback.” - Benjamin Bayani
“You cannot do harm to someone because someone has done harm to you. You will pay just like they will.” - Ericka Williams
“A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode.” — Chanakya
None of us is ever alone, and where we go after life - to the level we came from. No Hell (though the lower astral is not a pleasant place - those souls who spend time there do so because they believe they deserve it or have refused help to go to where they belong). The divine being that is Love condemns no soul despite what some religions teach but does encourage all souls to learn better.
“Karma isn’t fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day.” – Tulku Thondup
“According to the karma of past actions, one’s destiny unfolds, even though everyone wants to be so lucky.” – Sri Guru Grant Sahib
“Nothing happens by chance, by fate. You create your own fate by your actions. That’s Karma.”
“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.” - Kuna Yin
“Life is an echo. What you send out comes back. What you sow you reap. What you give you get. What you see in others exists in you.” ― Zig Ziglar
I have noticed that those insults people hurl at others, are whatever themselves (their egoes) fear the most being levelled at them. Ah, "Judge not lest ye be judged." Notice what your favourite insults are - what do they tell you about yourself?
“Problems or successes, they all are the results of our own actions. Karma. The philosophy of action is that no one else is the giver of peace or happiness. One’s own karma, one’s own actions are responsible to come to bring either happiness or success or whatever.” — Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
“Give up your selfishness, and you shall find peace; like water mingling with water, you shall merge in absorption.” - Sri Guru Granth Sahib
“I’m a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it’s bad or good.” - Sandra Bullock
“People are entangled in the enjoyment of fine clothes, but gold and silver are only dust. They acquire beautiful horses and elephants, and ornate carriages of many kinds. They think of nothing else, and they forget all their relatives. They ignore their Creator; without the Name, they are impure.” – Sri Guru Granth Sahib
The only things you take with you when leave this world, is what is in your soul.
“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
“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” - Albert Schweitzer
Some people are more obdurate unfortunately - seeing kindness as weakness, they think it advantageous to attack. Be strong in sustaining your kindness - they will learn eventually.
“We create karma by all kinds of selfish actions. The first thing we must understand is that we are psychologically asleep. It is very difficult for us to be conscious of ourselves. We are not very aware. We must come to recognize that we do not pay attention.” ― Abhysheq Shukla
“If you give the slightest pain to any living being, then in the form of pain, the pain-giving-karma will give you its ‘fruit’. So think before you hurt any living being.” ― Dada Bhagwan
“Do not attempt to help those who have not asked for your help. Interfering with their own karma will result in a never-ending spiritual war from which you can only lose.” ― Robin Sacredfire
“Eventually you are answerable to yourself for your deeds. Be good and do good!” ― Harsh Agrawal
No angry vengeful god judges you after life - you judge yourself, often harshly. Love though supports your soul to see itself with more clarity. It is a bit like the Ancient Egyptian idea of the heart weighed against the feather of truth. But there is no crocodile waiting to gobble you up if you fail, nor a fiery Hell into which you are thrown.
“Stop blaming others for the pains and sufferings you have. They are because of you, your karma, and your own disposition.” ― Girdhar Joshi
“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
“If you give your best to someone it will most definitely come back to you, often from a different person altogether.” ― Hrishikesh Agnihotri
“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
“This is your karma. You do not understand now, but you will understand later.” – H. Raven Rose
“Karma can be seen as a curse or a gift because it keeps us attached to this world.” – Abdullah Fort
“I believe in karma, and I believe if you put out positive vibes to everybody, that’s all you’re going to get back.” – Kesha
“Often when someone hurts you, they aren’t hurting you because you are you. They hurting you because they are them.” – Karen Salmansohn
“The Law of Karma is also called the Law of Cause and Effect, Action and Reaction and: as you sow, so shall you reap.” – Sham Hinduja
“For the innocent, the past may hold a reward. But for the treacherous, it’s only a matter of time before the past delivers what they truly deserve.” – Kevin McCarty
“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
“Not only is there often a right and wrong, but what goes around does come around. Karma exists.” - Donald Van de Mark
“As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.” - Sri Guru Granth Sahib
“Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can’t get away with screwing people over your whole life, I don’t care who you are. What goes around comes around. That’s how it works. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve.” - Jessica Brody
“Little girls plot revenge. Smart women sit back and let karma do its job.” ― Samantha Verant
“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
“Whatever we do lays a seed in our deepest consciousness, and one day that seed will grow.” - Sakyong Mipham
“If a householder molds himself according to the circumstances just like nature moulds herself according to seasons and performs his Karma then only shall he acquire happiness.” - Rig Veda
“Karma, ahhh. We sow what we reap… we reap what we sow! We reap what we sow. The law of cause and effect. And we are all under this law.” - Nina Hagen
“Karma is a balance sheet of life which debits and credit all your deeds. Which is audited by our creator and actions are based on what we accumulated in it.” ― Abhysheq Shukla
“We don’t find love, love finds us. What you put out into the universe will find its way back to you.” ― Raneem Kayyali
“Karma is like an arrow which the archer has already discharged. It has left his hands. He cannot recall it. Therefore he must take the consequences of it.” – Dittakavi Subrahmanya Sarma
“Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
“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
“In this world, it is not worth finding anyone’s faults. One becomes bound (by karma) by finding faults.” – Dada Bhagwan
“What goes around comes around. And sometimes you get what’s coming around.” – Jim Butcher
“If your actions were to boomerang back on you instantly, would you still act the same?” – Alexandra Katehakis
“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
“I would never disrespect any man, woman, chick, or child out there. What goes around comes around, and karma kicks us at the end of the day.” – Angie Stone
“Release the pain of the past and allow karma to kick your offender’s booty.” – Karen Salmansohn