A person is free when they live as they want to live. They're not forced into anything or blocked from what they want. Their actions flow naturally. They get what they desire. They avoid what they don't want. So who chooses to live in error? Nobody. Who chooses to live deceived, prone to mistakes, unfair, out of control, unhappy, or petty? Nobody. Therefore, no bad person lives as they wish. And so no bad person is free. Who chooses to live in grief, fear, envy, or pity? Who chooses to want things and not get them, or to try avoiding something and fall right into it? Nobody. Do we find any bad person free from grief or fear? Do we find any who avoid what they don't want and get what they do want? No. We don't find any bad person who is truly free.
He is free who lives as he wishes to live; who is neither subject to compulsion nor to hindrance, nor to force; whose movements to action ([Greek: hormai]) are not impeded, whose desires attain their purpose, and who does not fall into that which he would avoid ([Greek: echchliseis aperiptotoi]). Who then chooses to live in error? No man. Who chooses to live deceived, liable to mistake, unjust, unrestrained, discontented, mean? No man. Not one then of the bad lives as he wishes; nor is he then free. And who chooses to live in sorrow, fear, envy, pity, desiring and failing in his desires, attempting to avoid something and falling into it? Not one. Do we then find any of the bad free from sorrow, free from fear, who does not fall into that which he would avoid, and does not obtain that which he wishes? Not one; nor then do we find any bad man free.