“If it’s free, it’s advice; if you pay for it, it’s counseling”

“If it’s free, it’s advice; if you pay for it, it’s counseling; if you can use either one, it’s a miracle” is a jocular line of uncertain authorship. The saying was credited to “Jerry Ninnemann, Campbellsport News” in a Wisconsin newspaper in November 1990. The Reader’s Digest in 1991 credited the saying to “Jack Adams in Belleville, Wis., Recorder.”
   
Jack Adams is usually credited, but this is not the Canadian hockey player and coach named Jack Adams (1895-1968)—who was not from Wisconsin and could not have said it in 1990.
 
   
15 November 1990, Waunakee (WI) Tribune, “Pause…A Moment with Wisconsin Newspapers” by Romain Brandt, pg. 3, col. 6:
If it’s free, it’s advice—if you pay for it, it’s counseling—if you can use either one it’s a miracle.
Jerry Ninnemann, Campbellsport News
   
Google Books 
The Reader’s Digest
Volume 139, Issues 831-836
1991
Pg. 124:
IF IT’S FREE, it’s advice; if you pay for it, it’s counseling; if you can use either one, it’s a miracle.
—Jack Adams in Belleville, Wis., Recorder
 
Google Books
Business Wit & Wisdom
By Richard Zera
Washington, DC: Beard Books
2005
Pg. 5:
If it’s free, it’s advice; if you pay for it, it’s counseling; if you can use either one, it’s a miracle. —Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
   
Google Books
All Time Essentials for Entrepreneurs:
100 Things to Know and Do to Make Your Idea Happen
By Jonathan Yates
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2009
Pg. ?:
“If it’s free, it’s advice; if you pay for it, it’s counseling; if you can use either one, it’s a miracle.”
Jack Adams, 1895– 1968
Canadian professional hockey player who spent 36 years as coach or general manager of the Detroit Red Wings and became president of the Central Hockey League.
 
Google Books
The Little Book of Humorous Quotes
Edited by Malcolm Kushner
AKA Associates
2011
Pg. 7:
If it’s free, it’s advice; if you pay for it, it’s counseling; if you can use either one, it’s a miracle . ~Jack Adams
 
Twitter
Just My 2 Cents! ॐ
‏@Grtitude
If it’s free, It’s advice.
If you pay for it, It’s counseling
If you can use either of it, It’s a miracle.
😊
8:53 PM - 17 Oct 2014