Pusillanimous? Has it ever been used?

Okay, so when I was in high school I had a wonderful English teacher my Junior and Senior year who made literature interesting for the first time. She always had this tradition of sorts when students would participate in the ancient form of name calling, and some of us got pretty good at it. Whenever a student was caught red handed, actually since it was words I suppose you would say "red mouthed," she would have us look up a word in the dictionary.

Wait, did I say us...I meant them, because yours truly never got caught. Yes, I was that good.

Back to the point. I decided I would look it up today:

Pusillanimous

an adjective meaning lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid; proceeding from or indicating a cowardly spirit
Easy enough right?

My next thought was, "How would anyone know what you were talking about if they hadn't had our wonderful Mrs. Neely as a teacher?" Then I noticed a link to the left of the dictionary.com page, "pusillanimous quotes." I was intrigued. Was this going to be a link showing quotes that used pusillanimous, are there quotes using pusillanimous? Or better yet, was this going to give me examples of pusillanimous quotes, or cowardly sayings, people in history had said?

My curiosity prevailed and I clicked on the link which gave me a list of links...don't you love when you get link after link after link as the answer to a question? Sometimes I think they should call google the list maker instead of a search engine, but that's another blog.

I was somewhat disappointed by the first grouping of quotes which were mostly related to government officials being cowardly, but alas does anyone think they are brave? I found these quotes rather dull so I continued down the list of links and discovered an interesting bit of trivia I had not known. I found a quote that used pusillanimous in a MOVIE! the movie is even better though....wait for it....wait for it....wait for it....

The 1939 Wizard of OZ!
I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered it is from the scene where the Wizard of OZ is addressing the scarecrow, who has straw for brains, desire to have a brain.
"Why anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma."

Wisdom from the great beyond! I have discovered on many occasions that the only thing separating students from their perspective teacher is that diploma. You know the one I mean. The piece of paper that says, "I know how to do school and waste money without really learning anything and now I am going to teach you to do the same thing." Or more simply put, "Look I am a lemming and you will be too!" Thankfully for me Mrs. Neely knew what she was talking about and loved what she did.

Then I discovered yet another movie that uses the word, Look Back in Anger (1959). I have never seen this particular flick, but the quote was quite interesting:

Jimmy Porter (some character, remember I haven't seen it): "Nigel and Alison, they're what they sound like, sycophantic, phlegmatic and pusillanimous."
Cliff Lewis (another character responding): "Big words."
Jimmy Porter: Shall I tell you what they mean?
Cliff Lewis: No not interested, don't want to know.
Jimmy Porter: "Soapy, stodgy and dim."

Okay, so I may just have to go watch this film now because I LOVE Jimmy Porter's translation of his "big words." Apparently there is another use for pusillanimous that dictionary.com missed. It can not only mean cowardly, but not very bright which again makes the Wizard of OZ quote that much more ironic!

There are many other quotes out there, but I hope one day to do Mrs. Neely proud and use it in the natural flow of a conversation.