I have seen this bit attributed to W.C. Fields, Groucho Marx, and others, but it seems most commonly connected with G. B. Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw once said to a young lady,

"Would you sleep with me for $5,000?"

She was flustered, but finally answered "Yes."

Then Shaw asked "Would you sleep with me for $5?"

She said "Mr. Shaw, what kind of girl do you think I am?"

Shaw smiled. "We've already determined that. Now we're haggling price."

So, if the grant agencies are the Johns, does this make university administrators whores? Or are they the pimps and faculty the whores?

Everything is for sale.

Of course, if one questions this, one is dismissed as "naive," and advised to "get used to it, it's a fact of life," and so forth.

Yes, it's a fact of life. So is diarrhea.