"Beauty fades," my father would tell me, "but dumb? Dumb is forever."
Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work, and it annoys the pig.
Your son went into your kitchen and took a kitchen knife.
If you are trying to balance the scales of justice and equality in all your work relationships, you're going to come up short.
It's your life; live it well.
Don't make a cemetery of your life by burying your talents.