diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 38f08351d..822466d54 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ Incompatible changes
   by ``termsep`` node. In new implementation, each terms are converted into individual
   ``term`` nodes and ``termsep`` node is removed.
   By this change, output layout of every builders are changed a bit.
+* The default highlight language is now Python 3.  This means that source code
+  is highlighted as Python 3 (which is mostly a superset of Python 2), and no
+  parsing is attempted to distinguish valid code.
 
 Features added
 --------------
diff --git a/doc/config.rst b/doc/config.rst
index 38e4603ab..18f372ff3 100644
--- a/doc/config.rst
+++ b/doc/config.rst
@@ -320,11 +320,16 @@ Project information
 .. confval:: highlight_language
 
    The default language to highlight source code in.  The default is
-   ``'python'``.  The value should be a valid Pygments lexer name, see
+   ``'python3'``.  The value should be a valid Pygments lexer name, see
    :ref:`code-examples` for more details.
 
    .. versionadded:: 0.5
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 1.4
+      The default is now ``'python3'``, since it is mostly a superset of
+      ``'python'``.  If you prefer Python 2 only highlighting, you can set
+      it back to ``'python'``.
+
 .. confval:: highlight_options
 
    A dictionary of options that modify how the lexer specified by
diff --git a/sphinx/config.py b/sphinx/config.py
index 402eb1400..55c17ab43 100644
--- a/sphinx/config.py
+++ b/sphinx/config.py
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ class Config(object):
         trim_footnote_reference_space = (False, 'env'),
         show_authors = (False, 'env'),
         pygments_style = (None, 'html', [str]),
-        highlight_language = ('python', 'env'),
+        highlight_language = ('python3', 'env'),
         highlight_options = ({}, 'env'),
         templates_path = ([], 'html'),
         template_bridge = (None, 'html', [str]),
diff --git a/sphinx/highlighting.py b/sphinx/highlighting.py
index eb008dc4e..37efdc887 100644
--- a/sphinx/highlighting.py
+++ b/sphinx/highlighting.py
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ from sphinx.util.texescape import tex_hl_escape_map_new
 from sphinx.ext import doctest
 
 from pygments import highlight
-from pygments.lexers import PythonLexer, PythonConsoleLexer, CLexer, \
-    TextLexer, RstLexer
+from pygments.lexers import PythonLexer, Python3Lexer, PythonConsoleLexer, \
+    CLexer, TextLexer, RstLexer
 from pygments.lexers import get_lexer_by_name, guess_lexer
 from pygments.formatters import HtmlFormatter, LatexFormatter
 from pygments.filters import ErrorToken
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ from sphinx.pygments_styles import SphinxStyle, NoneStyle
 lexers = dict(
     none = TextLexer(stripnl=False),
     python = PythonLexer(stripnl=False),
+    python3 = Python3Lexer(stripnl=False),
     pycon = PythonConsoleLexer(stripnl=False),
     pycon3 = PythonConsoleLexer(python3=True, stripnl=False),
     rest = RstLexer(stripnl=False),
@@ -151,9 +152,11 @@ class PygmentsBridge(object):
                     lexer = lexers['none']
             else:
                 lexer = lexers['python']
-        elif lang in ('python3', 'py3') and source.startswith('>>>'):
-            # for py3, recognize interactive sessions, but do not try parsing...
-            lexer = lexers['pycon3']
+        elif lang in ('py3', 'python3'):
+            if source.startswith('>>>'):
+                lexer = lexers['pycon3']
+            else:
+                lexer = lexers['python3']
         elif lang == 'guess':
             try:
                 lexer = guess_lexer(source)
@@ -187,7 +190,8 @@ class PygmentsBridge(object):
             # this is most probably not the selected language,
             # so let it pass unhighlighted
             if warn:
-                warn('Could not parse literal_block as "%s". highlighting skipped.' % lang)
+                warn('Could not lex literal_block as "%s". '
+                     'Highlighting skipped.' % lang)
             else:
                 raise exc
             hlsource = highlight(source, lexers['none'], formatter)
diff --git a/tests/root/includes.txt b/tests/root/includes.txt
index 907b81e93..41b72b0ab 100644
--- a/tests/root/includes.txt
+++ b/tests/root/includes.txt
@@ -17,10 +17,12 @@ Test file and literal inclusion
 
 .. should give a warning
 .. literalinclude:: wrongenc.inc
+   :language: none
 
 .. should succeed
 .. literalinclude:: wrongenc.inc
    :encoding: latin-1
+   :language: none
 .. include:: wrongenc.inc
    :encoding: latin-1
 
diff --git a/tests/root/markup.txt b/tests/root/markup.txt
index 1700b3844..5cd7d2cbf 100644
--- a/tests/root/markup.txt
+++ b/tests/root/markup.txt
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ Generic reST
 
 A |subst| (the definition is in rst_epilog).
 
+.. highlight:: none
+
 .. _label:
 
 ::
diff --git a/tests/test_build_html.py b/tests/test_build_html.py
index 3b4629c64..4ccaf5f38 100644
--- a/tests/test_build_html.py
+++ b/tests/test_build_html.py
@@ -31,16 +31,16 @@ http://www.python.org/logo.png
 reading included file u'.*?wrongenc.inc' seems to be wrong, try giving an \
 :encoding: option\\n?
 %(root)s/includes.txt:4: WARNING: download file not readable: .*?nonexisting.png
-(%(root)s/markup.txt:357: WARNING: invalid single index entry u'')?
+(%(root)s/markup.txt:359: WARNING: invalid single index entry u'')?
 (%(root)s/undecodable.txt:3: WARNING: undecodable source characters, replacing \
 with "\\?": b?'here: >>>(\\\\|/)xbb<<<'
 )?"""
 
 HTML_WARNINGS = ENV_WARNINGS + """\
 %(root)s/images.txt:20: WARNING: no matching candidate for image URI u'foo.\\*'
-%(root)s/markup.txt:269: WARNING: Could not parse literal_block as "c". highlighting skipped.
+%(root)s/markup.txt:271: WARNING: Could not lex literal_block as "c". Highlighting skipped.
 %(root)s/footnote.txt:60: WARNING: citation not found: missing
-%(root)s/markup.txt:158: WARNING: unknown option: &option
+%(root)s/markup.txt:160: WARNING: unknown option: &option
 """
 
 if PY3:
diff --git a/tests/test_build_latex.py b/tests/test_build_latex.py
index e73356688..73fa17275 100644
--- a/tests/test_build_latex.py
+++ b/tests/test_build_latex.py
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@ from test_build_html import ENV_WARNINGS
 
 
 LATEX_WARNINGS = ENV_WARNINGS + """\
-%(root)s/markup.txt:158: WARNING: unknown option: &option
+%(root)s/markup.txt:160: WARNING: unknown option: &option
 %(root)s/footnote.txt:60: WARNING: citation not found: missing
 %(root)s/images.txt:20: WARNING: no matching candidate for image URI u'foo.\\*'
-%(root)s/markup.txt:269: WARNING: Could not parse literal_block as "c". highlighting skipped.
+%(root)s/markup.txt:271: WARNING: Could not lex literal_block as "c". Highlighting skipped.
 """
 
 if PY3:
diff --git a/tests/test_build_texinfo.py b/tests/test_build_texinfo.py
index 4f6813653..1cf2232c4 100644
--- a/tests/test_build_texinfo.py
+++ b/tests/test_build_texinfo.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ from test_build_html import ENV_WARNINGS
 
 
 TEXINFO_WARNINGS = ENV_WARNINGS + """\
-%(root)s/markup.txt:158: WARNING: unknown option: &option
+%(root)s/markup.txt:160: WARNING: unknown option: &option
 %(root)s/footnote.txt:60: WARNING: citation not found: missing
 %(root)s/images.txt:20: WARNING: no matching candidate for image URI u'foo.\\*'
 %(root)s/images.txt:29: WARNING: no matching candidate for image URI u'svgimg.\\*'