diff --git a/emacs/mu4e-view.el b/emacs/mu4e-view.el
index 372f3980..5d2f0f63 100644
--- a/emacs/mu4e-view.el
+++ b/emacs/mu4e-view.el
@@ -547,24 +547,25 @@ Seen; if the message is not New/Unread, do nothing."
   (save-excursion
     (let ((more-lines t))
       (goto-char (point-min))
-      (while more-lines
-	;; Get the citation level at point -- i.e., the number of '>'
-	;; prefixes, starting with 0 for 'no citation'
-	(beginning-of-line 1)
-	(let* ((level (how-many ">" (line-beginning-position 1)
-			(line-end-position 1)))
-		(face
-		  (unless (zerop level)
-		    (intern-soft (format "mu4e-cited-%d-face" level)))))
-	  (when face
-	    (add-text-properties (line-beginning-position 1)
-	      (line-end-position 1) `(face ,face))))
-	(setq more-lines
-	  (and (= 0 (forward-line 1))
-	    ;; we need to add this weird check below; it seems in some cases
-	    ;; `forward-line' continues to return 0, even when at the end, which
-	    ;; would lead to an infinite loop
-	    (not (= (point-max) (line-end-position)))))))))
+      (when (search-forward-regexp "^\n") ;; search the first empty line
+	(while more-lines
+	  ;; Get the citation level at point -- i.e., the number of '>'
+	  ;; prefixes, starting with 0 for 'no citation'
+	  (beginning-of-line 1)
+	  (let* ((level (how-many ">" (line-beginning-position 1)
+			  (line-end-position 1)))
+		  (face
+		    (unless (zerop level)
+		      (intern-soft (format "mu4e-cited-%d-face" level)))))
+	    (when face
+	      (add-text-properties (line-beginning-position 1)
+		(line-end-position 1) `(face ,face))))
+	  (setq more-lines
+	    (and (= 0 (forward-line 1))
+	      ;; we need to add this weird check below; it seems in some cases
+	      ;; `forward-line' continues to return 0, even when at the end, which
+	      ;; would lead to an infinite loop
+	      (not (= (point-max) (line-end-position))))))))))
 
 (defun mu4e~view-fontify-footer ()
   "Give the message footers a distinctive color."