diff --git a/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py b/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
index a8ec0cde4..851611ab2 100644
--- a/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
+++ b/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@ class Statement(object):
     """
 
     def __init__(self, text, **kwargs):
+
+        # Try not to allow non-string types to be passed to statements
+        try:
+            text = str(text)
+        except UnicodeEncodeError:
+            pass
+
         self.text = text
         self.in_response_to = kwargs.pop('in_response_to', [])
 
diff --git a/tests/test_comparisons.py b/tests/test_comparisons.py
index 83027b441..1b0133f99 100644
--- a/tests/test_comparisons.py
+++ b/tests/test_comparisons.py
@@ -31,6 +31,18 @@ def test_levenshtein_distance_other_statement_false(self):
 
         self.assertEqual(value, 0)
 
+    def test_levenshtein_distance_statement_integer(self):
+        """
+        Test that an exception is not raised if a statement is initialized
+        with an integer value as its text attribute.
+        """
+        statement = Statement(2)
+        other_statement = Statement('Hello')
+
+        value = comparisons.levenshtein_distance(statement, other_statement)
+
+        self.assertEqual(value, 0)
+
     def test_exact_match_different_capitalization(self):
         """
         Test that text capitalization is ignored.