diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6a02f78..69f0fc2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ eton is a note-taking cli tool.
 eton -h
 
 # quick add
-eton new '[ ] do something'
+eton new '[ ] try eton'
 
 # create a new note and open $EDITOR to edit it
 eton new
@@ -39,8 +39,8 @@ eton alias all-processes processes
 # list all items
 eton ls -a
 
-# filter items containing words "thing" AND "some"
-eton ls thing some
+# filter items containing words "word1" AND "word2"
+eton ls word1 word2
 
 # you can mark specific items
 eton mark processes 1
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ eton edit {1..3} 4 prcs
 eton cat prcs
 
 # pass items to xargs as filenames:
-eton ls something -l |xargs -i less {}
+eton ls '[ ]' -l |xargs -i less {}
 ```
 
 Notes are stored in ~/.etondb
diff --git a/attr.go b/attr.go
index f7de594..ca9cdda 100644
--- a/attr.go
+++ b/attr.go
@@ -430,7 +430,14 @@ func highlightLine(line string, highlighteds []string) (string, bool) {
 		return line, false
 	} else {
 		reFlags := "(?i)"
-		re := regexp.MustCompile(reFlags + "(" + strings.Join(highlighteds, "|") + ")")
+
+		quotedHighlighteds := make([]string, len(highlighteds), len(highlighteds))
+
+		for i, str := range highlighteds {
+			quotedHighlighteds[i] = regexp.QuoteMeta(str)
+		}
+
+		re := regexp.MustCompile(reFlags + "(" + strings.Join(quotedHighlighteds, "|") + ")")
 		if indexes := re.FindStringIndex(line); indexes != nil {
 			var indexBegin int
 			var indexEnd int