John Stuart Mill, discussing poetry as a great instrument for acting on the human mind, paraphrased this celebrated saying as: "Let who will make the laws of a people if I write their songs". See Mill, John Stuart (1867). Inaugural Address, Delivered to the University of St. Andrews, Feb. 1st, 1867 (1 ed.). London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer. p. 87. Retrieved 11 September 2015. via Internet Archive