In this answer, I argue that a pivotal figure for the transfer of Ancient Greek thought into Christendom, was Boethius with 'On The Consolations of Philosophy', involvedwhich advocated a kind of 'quietist' Stoic acceptance of political and economic inequality, and. And the hegemony of that, was profoundly disturbed by the rise of Protestantism, and associated with that, Capitalism: What are the intellectual roots of U.S. happiness and Western Continental Europe suffering?
I argue that each generation must learn it's own lessons from history,: that it is a well we go to in order to refresh our understanding of ourselves, rather than a finished text about the past: Do historians have responsibility in how they decide to depict something?
Although there are a few modern Stoics, eg James Stockdale, I suggest your first thesis is better represented in modern discourse by Buddhism. And it's interesting how Zizek is angry about what he percieves as a quietusticquietistic tendency or risk of that, towards greed and violence in how Buddhist thought is taking root in the West, discussed. Discussed here: Answering Zizek's challenge to Buddhism.
This view oversimplifies. Across a life, we cannot sever ourselves from our history and transplant a new head. But we can cultivate desires, and shape the habits of what seizes us. Nietzsche advocated in his metamorphosees, developing ourselves spuritually, to be self-reliant, and assertive - but above all to return to a childlike crestivitycreativity:
"Man's maturity: to rediscover the seriousness wehe had as a child at play." - Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil
Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, has a loonglooong history of looking at how we can decide how to be. They hold that the thing that really matters, the only desire that lasts, is bodhicitta,. you miggt teanslatebitmight teanslate it as Great Compassion, or love for all beings, or being in love with the world. And when we can do that, sustain that, despite all the flaws and selfishness and delusions we encounter, we have a mind ready to face Nietzsche's "heaviest burden": Eternal Recurrance (discussed in detail here What if I get born again as the same person for ever?).