Precious é o álbum de estreia em inglês de Cubic U (nome artístico de Hikaru Utada antes de sua estreia no Japão), que foi gravado no Sony Music Studios em Nova York em 1996. O álbum nunca foi lançado comercialmente nos EUA, devido a problemas internos com a gravadora EMI. Ele estava disponível apenas para insiders da indústria musical. O álbum foi lançado no Japão em 28 de janeiro de 1998; o álbum não entrou nas paradas semanais da Oricon. Após o enorme sucesso de First Love de Utada, o álbum foi relançado em 31 de março de 1999, e alcançou a posição #2 nas paradas da Oricon com 702,060 cópias vendidas.
“Blessed, plainly, is that life which is not valued at the estimation of outsiders, but is known, as judge of itself, by its own inner feelings. It needs no popular opinion as its reward in any way; nor has it any fear of punishments. Thus the less it strives for glory, the more it rises above it.”
“It is not our affluence, or our plumbing, or our clogged freeways that grip the imagination of others. Rather, it is the values upon which our system is built. These values imply our adherence not only to liberty and individual freedom, but also to international peace, law and order, and constructive social purpose. When we depart from these values, we do so at our peril.”
“Behold the good and the just! ... Behold the believers of all faiths! Whom do they hate most? The man who breaks their tables of values, the breaker, the lawbreaker. Yet he is the creator.”
“Talk of the sublime, the exalted, the eternal, the passionate, of glory, challenge, or majesty fills some of us with bewilderment, discomfort, and embarrassment; others with sour resentment or scornful disbelief. To reinstate such values seems to us like trying to reinstate Ptolemaic astronomy—equally misguided, incomprehensible, and inimical to our perceived interests.”
“When present, it was considered a loincloth; when lost, it is considered fine clothing.”
“The characteristic of the really great writer is the ability of his mind to to suddenly leap beyond his ordinary human values, into sudden perception of universal values.”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.
Not who you're looking for? Others named Precious: Precious album · British band · 2005 Depeche Mode song · The Jam song
