"For this reason," Diogenes says, "I can speak to the King of Persia and to King Archidamus of Sparta however I want." Was this because he was born to free parents? I guess that means all Athenians and Spartans, since they were born to slaves, couldn't talk to these kings as they wished. Instead they had to fear them and flatter them. So why does Diogenes say he has this power? "Because I don't think this weak body belongs to me. Because I want nothing. Because law is everything to me, and nothing else matters." These beliefs made him free.
"For this reason," he says, "Diogenes, it is in your power to speak both with the King of the Persians and with Archidamus the King of the Lacedaemonians, as you please." Was it because he was born of free parents? I suppose all the Athenians and all the Lacedaemonians, because they were born of slaves, could not talk with them (these kings) as they wished, but feared and paid court to them. Why then does he say that it is in his power? Because I do not consider the poor body to be my own, because I want nothing, because law is everything to me, and nothing else is. These were the things which permitted him to be free.