diff --git a/html_terminator.gemspec b/html_terminator.gemspec
index 44cfc95..b362c5c 100644
--- a/html_terminator.gemspec
+++ b/html_terminator.gemspec
@@ -21,5 +21,5 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.add_development_dependency "bundler", "~> 1.3"
   spec.add_development_dependency "rake"
 
-  spec.add_runtime_dependency "sanitize"
+  spec.add_runtime_dependency "sanitize", "~> 4.0"
 end
diff --git a/lib/html_terminator.rb b/lib/html_terminator.rb
index 340e1e8..d6073e6 100644
--- a/lib/html_terminator.rb
+++ b/lib/html_terminator.rb
@@ -7,13 +7,19 @@ module HtmlTerminator
   }
 
   def self.sanitize(val)
-    if val and val.is_a?(String)
-      Sanitize.clean(val, SANITIZE_OPTIONS).strip
+    if val.is_a?(String) && !skip_sanitize?(val)
+      Sanitize.fragment(val, SANITIZE_OPTIONS).strip.gsub(/&/, "&")
     else
       val
     end
   end
 
+  # Don't sanitize if only one bracket is present.
+  # Without this, "1 < 2" gets incorrectly sanitized as "1".
+  def self.skip_sanitize?(val)
+    val.count("<") + val.count(">") == 1
+  end
+
   module ClassMethods
     def terminate_html(*args)
       class_attribute :html_terminator_fields
@@ -45,9 +51,9 @@ def terminate_html(*args)
 
           # sanitize reads
           self.html_terminator_fields.each do |attr|
-            define_method "#{attr}" do |*args|
+            define_method(attr) do |*rargs|
               # sanitize it
-              HtmlTerminator.sanitize super(*args)
+              HtmlTerminator.sanitize super(*rargs)
             end
           end
         end
@@ -73,4 +79,4 @@ def self.included(base)
   end
 end
 
-ActiveRecord::Base.send :include, HtmlTerminator
\ No newline at end of file
+ActiveRecord::Base.send :include, HtmlTerminator
diff --git a/spec/html_terminator_spec.rb b/spec/html_terminator_spec.rb
index e9a75a9..9db37a8 100644
--- a/spec/html_terminator_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/html_terminator_spec.rb
@@ -14,6 +14,30 @@
     @user.age.should == 3
   end
 
+  it "doesn't escape ampersands" do
+    @user = OnlyFirstName.new
+
+    @user.first_name = "A & B & C"
+    @user.first_name.should == "A & B & C"
+  end
+
+  it "skips sanitize when only one bracket" do
+    @user = OnlyFirstName.new
+
+    @user.first_name = "1 < 2"
+    @user.first_name.should == "1 < 2"
+
+    @user.first_name = "2 > 1"
+    @user.first_name.should == "2 > 1"
+  end
+
+  it "handles ampersands" do
+    @user = OnlyFirstName.new
+
+    @user.first_name = "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"
+    @user.first_name.should == "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"
+  end
+
   it "sanitizes all except what is specified" do
     @user = ExceptFirstName.new
 
@@ -35,4 +59,4 @@
     @user.first_name = 1
     @user.first_name.should == "1"
   end
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end