What I find a very inspiring source of guidelines on this subject are ideas presented by Scottish Enlightenment thinkers. Here I would especially like to mention a few thoughts of Lord Shaftesbury, who introduced the expression of a natural moral sense, later famously used by Adam Smith. In his ‘Characteristics’, while arguing against psychological egoism, he regarded the self-directed impulses (‘self-passions’ as he called them) as necessary aspects of human nature. The important thing for him was knowledge of one’s true self-interest:

“Happiness was to be pursued and in fact was always sought after; but whether found in following Nature, and giving way to common affection, or in suppressing it, and turning every passion towards private advantage, a narrow self-end or the preservation of mere life, this would be the matter in debate between us. The question would not be, who loved himself or who not, but who loved and served himself the rightest and after the truest manner”.

and the height of wisdom was ‘to be rightly selfish’ because narrowly considered self-interest provokes actions that work against a person’s real interest:

“Now these affections (self-passions), if they are moderate and within certain bounds, are neither injurious to social life nor a hindrance to virtue; but being in an extreme degree, they become cowardice, revengefulness, luxury, avarice, vanity and ambition, sloth; and as such are owned vicious and ill with respect to human society. They are ill also with respect to the private person and are to his disadvantage”.

Thus it is not greed, but rational and tempered self-interest that contributes to people’s social and economic welfare. The wise man is not necessarily someone who renounces wealth, but someone who understands its proper role in human life.