He was sent to prison. But the observation “he has suffered evil,” is an addition coming from you.
—Epictetus, Discourses, 3.8.5-6a
This is classic Stoic thinking, as you’ve gathered by now. An event itself is objective. How we describe it—that it was unfair, or it’s a great calamity, or that they did it on purpose—is on us.
Malcolm X (then Malcolm Little) went into prison a criminal, but he left as an educated, religious, and motivated man who would help in the struggle for civil rights. Did he suffer an evil? Or did he choose to make his experience a positive one?
Acceptance isn’t passive. It’s the first step in an active process toward self-improvement.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman