diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b7615cade..5fe0d9818 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -131,12 +131,6 @@
 			<version>1.3.2</version>
 			<scope>compile</scope>
 		</dependency>
-		<dependency>
-			<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
-			<artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
-			<version>3.1</version>
-			<scope>compile</scope>
-		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
 			<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/CoreExtension.java b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/CoreExtension.java
index e9ddc2e66..16e10bcd9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/CoreExtension.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/CoreExtension.java
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
-import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
-
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.PebbleEngine;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.node.expression.binary.NodeExpressionBinaryAdd;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.node.expression.binary.NodeExpressionBinaryAnd;
@@ -61,6 +59,7 @@
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.tokenParser.SetTokenParser;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.tokenParser.TokenParser;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.utils.OperatorUtils;
+import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.utils.StringUtils;
 
 public class CoreExtension extends AbstractExtension {
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/EscaperExtension.java b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/EscaperExtension.java
index 7358546b9..1249aacde 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/EscaperExtension.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/extension/EscaperExtension.java
@@ -12,8 +12,6 @@
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
-import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringEscapeUtils;
-
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.PebbleEngine;
 
 public class EscaperExtension extends AbstractExtension {
@@ -28,7 +26,7 @@ public List<Filter> getFilters() {
 		filters.add(escapeFilter);
 		return filters;
 	}
-	
+
 	private Filter escapeFilter = new Filter() {
 		public String getName() {
 			return "escape";
@@ -57,7 +55,38 @@ public Object apply(Object inputObject, List<Object> args) {
 	};
 
 	private String htmlEscape(String input) {
-		return StringEscapeUtils.escapeHtml4(input);
+		if (input == null) {
+			return input;
+		}
+		StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
+		char[] chars = input.toCharArray();
+		for (int i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
+			char charac = chars[i];
+
+			switch (charac) {
+				case '&':
+					result.append("&amp;");
+					break;
+				case '<':
+					result.append("&lt;");
+					break;
+				case '>':
+					result.append("&gt;");
+					break;
+				case '"':
+					result.append("&quot;");
+					break;
+				case '\'':
+					result.append("&#x27;");
+					break;
+				case '/':
+					result.append("&#x2F;");
+				default:
+					result.append(charac);
+					break;
+			}
+		}
+		return result.toString();
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/lexer/LexerImpl.java b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/lexer/LexerImpl.java
index 64358af76..2b7d8530a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/lexer/LexerImpl.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/lexer/LexerImpl.java
@@ -17,8 +17,6 @@
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
-import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
-
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.PebbleEngine;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.error.SyntaxException;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.lexer.Token.Type;
@@ -26,6 +24,7 @@
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.operator.UnaryOperator;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.utils.Pair;
 import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.utils.StringLengthComparator;
+import com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.utils.StringUtils;
 
 public class LexerImpl implements Lexer {
 
@@ -416,8 +415,9 @@ private void pushToken(Token.Type type) {
 	 */
 	private void pushToken(Token.Type type, String value) {
 		// ignore empty text tokens
-		if (type.equals(Token.Type.TEXT) && StringUtils.isEmpty(value))
+		if (type.equals(Token.Type.TEXT) && StringUtils.isEmpty(value)){
 			return;
+		}
 		this.tokens.add(new Token(type, value, this.lineNumber));
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/utils/StringUtils.java b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/utils/StringUtils.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..87bbfec41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/com/mitchellbosecke/pebble/utils/StringUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+package com.mitchellbosecke.pebble.utils;
+
+public class StringUtils {
+
+	public static boolean isEmpty(String value) {
+		boolean blank = false;
+
+		if (value == null) {
+			blank = true;
+		} else if ("".equals(value)) {
+			blank = true;
+		}
+		return blank;
+	}
+	
+	public static boolean isBlank(String value) {
+		boolean blank = false;
+
+		if (value == null) {
+			blank = true;
+		} else if ("".equals(value.trim())) {
+			blank = true;
+		}
+		return blank;
+	}
+
+	public static String capitalize(String value) {
+		if (value == null || (value.length() == 0)) {
+			return value;
+		}
+
+		char firstCharacter = value.charAt(0);
+		if (Character.isTitleCase(firstCharacter)) {
+			return value;
+		}
+		return new StringBuilder(value.length()).append(Character.toTitleCase(firstCharacter))
+				.append(value.substring(1)).toString();
+	}
+
+	public static String abbreviate(String value, int maxWidth) {
+		if(value == null){
+			return null;
+		}
+		String ellipsis = "...";
+		int length = value.length();
+		
+		if(length < maxWidth){
+			return value;
+		}
+		if(length <= 3){
+			return value;
+		}
+		return value.substring(0, maxWidth - 3) + ellipsis;
+	}
+
+}