In "To Quote a Phrase," I spotlight memorable quotes from comic books.

The other day, I featured a notable quote from an Avenger in conjunction with Ultron that sadly did not make the cut for the actual Age of Ultron film. That fact, though, reminded me that there was a really good quote by an Avenger that actually DID make it into one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and it worked really well there, too!

Civil War was a fascinating crossover event because it seemed as though there were often two alternate versions of the same basic events happening in different titles. The concept of the event was that the New Warriors were in a fight with some supervillains when one of the villains, Nitro, was so hopped up on Mutant Growth Hormone, that his explosion powers worked much stronger than normal and instead of just blowing up the area directly around him, he blew up a large chunk of Stamford, including a significant piece of a Stamford elementary school. Most of the New Warriors were killed in the blast and the whole thing became the source of a referendum in the country on so-called "unregistered" superheroes going out there and fighting crime without any government oversight (and theoretically without any training. When Spider-Man started fighting crime, he literally just started doing it. It wasn't like he was trained to be a crimefighter).

Iron Man was afraid that the government would ask for even greater control over superheroes if they did not get behind the Superhuman Registration Act. Captain America, though, believed the whole thing to be an unreasonable infringement on the privacy rights of superheroes everywhere.

So that became the key conflict of the event - Iron Man and the registered superheroes versus Captain America and the unregistered superheroes.

Caught in the middle was Spider-Man, who had been taken under Iron Man's wings and so when Civil War started, Spider-Man went along with Iron Man's side and even revealed his secret identity to the world to show how much he supported Iron Man's side in Civil War #2 (by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines)...

However, Spider-Man then decided he no longer believed in Iron Man's side (Iron Man cloning Thor and that Thor clone then killing Goliath was probably a bad sign for Spidey) and in Civil War #5 (by Millar, McNiven and Vines), Spider-Man broke from Iron Man officially...

That was in the Civil War comic. However, J. Michael Straczynski was handling things a lot different in his side of the story in Amazing Spider-Man. Over there, the Iron Man side of thing was a lot more on the evil side of things.

In any event, with Spider-Man now on Captain America's side, Spider-Man is having a hard time with the whole drama and he turns to Cap for advice...

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Cap sure is good at speechifiying!']

Captain America tries to give him Spider-Man a pep talk in Amazing Spider-Man #537 (by J. Michael Straczynski, Ron Garney and Scott Hanna)....

Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."

The quote is a variation on this old Mark Twain quote:

Each of you, for himself or herself, by himself or herself, and on his or her own responsibility, must speak. It is a solemn and weighty responsibility and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government or politician. Each must decide for himself or herself alone what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man, to decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor. It is traitorous both against yourself and your country.

Let men label you as they may, if you alone of all the nation decide one way, and that way be the right way by your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country, hold up your head for you have nothing to be ashamed of.

It doesn’t matter what the press says. It doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. It doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. Republics are founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe in. no matter the odds or consequences.

When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move. Your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and tell the whole world:

“No, you move.”

In Captain America: Civil War, it is Sharon Carter who delivers the speech as a eulogy to her grandmother, Peggy Carter (Cap's old girlfriend), as she tries to compel Captain America to fight back against the film's version of the Superhuman Registration Act...

If you care to suggest cool comic book quotes that you'd like to see spotlighted here, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com. There's a decent enough chance that if you think the quote in question is super cool than I, too, will find it super cool and feature it here. Not a 100% chance, though, of course. Let's say roughly a 60% chance.