Be The Master Of Your Own Destiny With These 55+ Insightful Karma Quotes

Be nice to people on your way up, they’ll be the same people you meet on the way down. Karma’s a bitch. You seal your own fate. These are just a few idioms about karma we use in our daily lives to teach kindness, responsibility, and ownership of our actions. In traditional Hindu and Buddhist teachings, karma encapsulates the concept of a person’s deeds in this life deciding their fate in a future existence. The lesson is to do good, be kind, and care about others now so as to have a fortunate fate yourself. These ancient religions and societies are not the only ones espousing these concepts. In Judaism, the saying is to “Love your neighbor as yourself;” in Christianity, it’s “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you;” in Tamil, it’s “Do not do to others what you know has hurt yourself;” and in ancient Egypt, it was, “which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.” The list of ancient religions and societies with similar proverbs goes on and on.

Whether you dub this central principle the Golden Rule, or rule of reciprocity, or just basic human decency, the goal is the same: to teach cause and effect, responsibility, humility, generosity, hospitality, and so much more. If you’re looking for karma quotes that sum up these ideas, we’ve gone ahead and rounded up some of the most well-known lines and sayings about karma and fate.

Karma Quotes

1. “If you give a good thing to the world, then over time your karma will be good, and you’ll receive good.” — Russell Simmons
2. “Whatever we do lays a seed in our deepest consciousness, and one day that seed will grow.” — Sakyong Mipham
3. “You made your own bed, and now curse others for putting you there.” — Wesley Chu
4. “Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.” — Edwin Hubbel Chapin
5. “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
6. “You cannot control the results, only your actions.” — Allan Lokos
7. “A boomerang returns back to the person who throws it. But first, while moving in a circle, it hits its target. So does gossip.” — Vera Nazarian
8. “Still others commit all sorts of evil deeds, claiming karma doesn’t exist. They erroneously maintain that since everything is empty, committing evil isn’t wrong. Such persons fall into a hell of endless darkness with no hope of release. Those who are wise hold no such conception.” — Bodhidharma
9. “As long as karma exists, the world changes. There will always be karma to be taken care of.” — Nina Hagen
10. “I believe in karma. If the good is sown, the good is collected. When positive things are made, that returns well.” — Yannick Noah
11. “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
12. “As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.” — Sri Guru Granth Sahib
13. “Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.” — Elbert Hubbard
14. “Karma, simply put, is an action for an action, good or bad.” — Stephen Richards
15. “You cannot do harm to someone because someone has done harm to you. You will pay just like they will.” — Ericka Williams
16. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank
17. “Every action has equal and opposite reaction. This is law of the universe and spares none. Wrong done and injustice inflicted is paid back in the same coin. No one has escaped justice of the universe. It is only a matter of time.” — Anil Sinha
18. “Most times, how you treat your children is how they grow up to treat you.” — Terry Mark
19. “Whatever you give to life, it gives you back. Do not hate anybody. The hatred which comes out from you will someday come back to you. Love others. And love will come back to you.” — Unknown
20. “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
21. “Karma bides its time. You will always have to watch out. Karma is unforgiving and always gets payback.” — Benjamin Bayani
22. “If you’re really a mean person you’re going to come back as a fly and eat poop.” — Kurt Cobain
23. “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
24. “I’m a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it’s bad or good.” — Sandra Bullock
25. “If a householder molds himself according to the circumstances just like nature molds Herself according to seasons and performs his karma, then only shall he acquire happiness.” — Rig Veda
26. “Give up your selfishness, and you shall find peace; like water mingling with water, you shall merge in absorption.” — Sri Guru Granth Sahib
27. “Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don’t even notice it.” — Sakyong Mipham
28. “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” — Wayne W. Dyer
29. “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.” — Eckhart Tolle
30. “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
31. “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
32. “Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.” — Arthur Conan Doyle
33. “I’m not a believer in predetermined fates, being rewarded for one’s efforts. I’m not a believer in karma. The reason why I try to be a good person is because I think it’s the right thing to do. If I commit fewer bad acts there will be fewer bad acts, maybe other people will join in committing fewer bad acts, and in time there will be fewer and fewer of them.” — Daniel Handler
34. “It is your karma to fight evil. It doesn’t matter if the people that evil is being committed against don’t fight back. It doesn’t matter if the entire world chooses to look the other way. Always remember this. You don’t live with the consequences of other people’s karma. You live with the consequences of your own.” — Amish Tripathi
35. “Situations seem to happen to people, but in reality, they unfold from deeper karmic causes. The universe unfolds to itself, bringing to bear any cause that needs to be included. Don’t take this process personally. The working out of cause and effect is eternal. You are part of this rising and falling that never ends, and only by riding the wave can you ensure that the waves don’t drown you. The ego takes everything personally, leaving no room for higher guidance or purpose. If you can, realize that a cosmic plan is unfolding and appreciate the incredibly woven tapestry for what it is, a design of unparalleled marvel.” — Deepak Chopra
36. “Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion.” — Dalai Lama XIV
37. “Some day people will ask me what is the key to my success… and I will simply say, ‘Good Karma.’” — K. Crumley
38. “The mind is everything. What you think, you become.” — Gautama Buddha
39. “If your actions were to boomerang back on you instantly, would you still act the same? Doing to others an act you’d rather not have done to you reveals a powerful internal conflict.” — Alexandra Katehakis
40. “Karma is a cruel mistress.” — Kelley York
41. “I believe in fate and I believe that things happen for a reason but I don’t think that there’s a high power, necessarily. I believe in karma very much though.” — Amy Winehouse
42. “Don’t wait for a better world. Start now to create a world of harmony and peace. It is up to you, and it always has been. You may even find the solution at the end of your fork.” — Sharon Gannon
43. “Time and Nemesis will do that which I would not, were it in my power remote or immediate. You will smile at this piece of prophecy — do so, but recollect it: It is justified by all human experience. No one was ever even the involuntary cause of great evils to others, without a requital: I have paid and am paying for mine — so will you.” — George Gordon Byron
44. “Eventually you are answerable to yourself for your deeds. Be good and do good!” — Harsh Agrawal
45. “Good things could happen to not so bad people.” — Mike Gayle
46. “History is like karma; it keeps repeating unless we learn from it.” — Daniyal Khurshid
47. “When you’re born, your life (past karma) is like a piece of string with knots in it and you’ve got to try, before you die, to undo all the knots: but you tie another twenty trying to get one undone.” — George Harrison
48. “The Universe never forgets… never!” — Kayo K.
49. “Worry about your own sins, karma won’t ask you about mine.” — Amit Kalantri
50. “Some people get frustrated because others don’t suffer as much as they do. They don’t hate them, but they hate the inequality of pain. But there is no point in hating what you cannot control.” — Sarvesh Jain
51. “Everything happens for a reason? No. Everything happens and we’re the reason.” — Karl Kristian Flores
52. “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
53. “I’ve got a big heart and I believe in good karma.” — E-40
54. “Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven.” — Mary Baker Eddy
55. “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
56. “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
57. “If karma doesn’t catch up, God will surely pick up the slack.” — Anthony Liccione