Parenting & Family Quote by Daniel Keys Moran

There is an almost dangerous softness to the phrasing: "virtually nothing". Moran doesn’t say he would do anything; he leaves himself a sliver of moral daylight. That tiny hedge is the tell. It signals awareness that the world’s ugliest choices often arrive wearing the costume of protection, especially when children are invoked. The line wants to sound like uncomplicated decency, but it’s built with the kind of conditional wiring a genre writer understands: good intentions are powerful, and power always comes with a price tag.

"Fair shake" is doing heavy cultural work, too. It’s not a utopian promise or a call for equality in the abstract; it’s American idiom, the language of rigged systems and backroom advantages. Moran is gesturing at structural unfairness without naming villains, which makes the statement widely adoptable. Anyone can nod along: liberals hear social safety nets, conservatives hear opportunity, parents hear protection. That broad appeal is the point.

The subtext is a plea for moral permission. If the stakes are kids, then extraordinary measures start to feel not only acceptable but noble. Moran’s "try and make sure" adds another layer: humility, yes, but also an anticipatory defense against failure. It admits you can spend your life pushing against injustice and still not win, which is a writer’s honest acknowledgment of limits.

Contextually, coming from a science fiction writer, it reads like a manifesto for stories where institutions fail and individuals decide whether to become the monster they’re fighting. It’s idealism with its sleeves rolled up, already bracing for compromise.