Quote from Lao Tzu

"He who knows others is wise.  He who knows himself is enlightened."  Please forgive the gender specificity; it's still a good quote.   The answers lie within, not outside of ourselves.  Life give us clues so that we an figure out the world on our own terms.  We cannot and should not blindly follow the path that others have followed, for that will certainly not be our correct path.  If you can understand yourself, you can understand the whole world.