The only difference between elements and compounds consists in the supposed impossibility of proving the so-called elements to be compounds.
Wolfgang OstwaldThe chemists work with inaccurate and poor measuring services, but they employ very good materials. The physicists, on the other hand, use excellent methods and accurate instruments, but they apply these to very inferior materials. The physical chemists combine both these characteristics in that they apply imprecise methods to impure materials.
Wolfgang Ostwald