人非生而知之者,孰能无惑

rén fēi shēng ér zhī zhī zhě , shú néng wú huò

Knowledge is not innate to man, how can we overcome doubt?

We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity? (i.e. without guidance from a teacher - Tang dynasty essayist Han Yu 韓愈|韩愈[Han2 Yu4])

人

rén

person; people

非

fēi

abbr. for 非洲[Fei1 zhou1], Africa

生

shēng

to be born

而

ér

and

知

zhī

to know

之

zhī

(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5])

者

zhě

(after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ...

,

,

孰

shú

who

能

néng

can

无

wú

not to have

惑

huò

to confuse