We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.

Hazlitt’s remark contrasts self-conscious technique with absorbed, practiced execution. It suggests that excellence often arrives when deliberation about “how” gives way to fluency—when skill has been internalized enough that attention can rest on the task itself rather than on monitoring one’s performance. The line anticipates later ideas about habit, automaticity, and “flow”: overthinking can interrupt coordination, spontaneity, and judgment, while mastery looks effortless because the performer is no longer preoccupied with method. At the same time, the aphorism implies a sequence: reflection and learning may be necessary early on, but the highest stage of competence is marked by forgetting the scaffolding and acting with unforced ease.