Each year on the second of July The Salvation Army celebrates Founders' Day! It marks the anniversary of the day William Booth preached in an open-air meeting in east London, making the first step in forming the movement that became The Salvation Army.

We thank God for the obedience, the courage and the Spirit-filled leadership of William and Catherine Booth that captured the hearts and minds of many. 159 years on, we pray that those touched by The Salvation Army today would continue to be transformed and empowered by the gospel, compelled to give their all to follow Jesus, and inspired to creatively respond to the needs of others.

We are thankful that their words and writings continue to minister to Christians around the world, inspiring them to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with the Lord.

To celebrate Founders' Day 2024, Women's Ministries have compiled a list of ten much-loved quotes from William and Catherine Booth:

1. 'I have pledged myself to seek until I find the holiness of heart.' - Catherine Booth

2. 'Let the grown-up people set before the children a constant and living example of that gentleness and kindness to woman which was ever manifested by our Lord Jesus Christ.' - William Booth

3. 'What does God want with us? He wants us just to be and to do. He wants us to be like His Son and then do as His Son did; and when we come to that He will shake the world through us!' - Catherine Booth

4. 'I insist on woman's equality. Every officer and soldier should hold to it that woman is as important, as valuable, as capable, and as necessary to the progress and the happiness of the world as man.' - William Booth

5. 'The waters are rising, but so am I; I am not going under, but over!' - Catherine Booth

6. 'Let the boy be taught from his earliest infancy that his sister is as good as he is... Let the girl be made to feel that her value to God and man is as high as it would have been had she been a boy.' - William Booth

7. 'I know it is easy to talk, I feel how liable I am to fall short; but it is well to purpose right, to aim high, to hope much.' - Catherine Booth

8. 'We ought to encourage the growth of the spirit of personal piety in our soldiers. The spirit of prayer and faith and love to God and man.' - William Booth

9. 'I know not what He is about to do with me but I have given myself entirely into His hands.' - Catherine Booth

10. 'If there is anything of power in The Salvation Army today, it is because God has had all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will and all the influence of my life.' - William Booth

Photo source: The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre