diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 05c4de607..a32705717 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -91,6 +91,8 @@ Bugs fixed
 
 * sphinx.htmlwriter: Don't use os.path for joining image HREFs.
 
+* sphinx.htmlwriter: Don't use SmartyPants for HTML attribute values.
+
 * sphinx.latexwriter: Implement option lists.  Also, some other changes
   were made to ``sphinx.sty`` in order to enhance compatibility and
   remove old unused stuff.  Thanks to Gael Varoquaux for that!
diff --git a/sphinx/htmlwriter.py b/sphinx/htmlwriter.py
index 8767f73f8..94b3cdb51 100644
--- a/sphinx/htmlwriter.py
+++ b/sphinx/htmlwriter.py
@@ -351,8 +351,11 @@ class SmartyPantsHTMLTranslator(HTMLTranslator):
         finally:
             self.no_smarty -= 1
 
-    def encode(self, text):
-        text = HTMLTranslator.encode(self, text)
-        if self.no_smarty <= 0:
-            text = sphinx_smarty_pants(text)
-        return text
+    def visit_Text(self, node):
+        text = node.astext()
+        encoded = self.encode(text)
+        if self.in_mailto and self.settings.cloak_email_addresses:
+            encoded = self.cloak_email(encoded)
+        elif self.no_smarty <= 0:
+            encoded = sphinx_smarty_pants(encoded)
+        self.body.append(encoded)