diff --git a/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/StringUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/StringUtils.java
index 5edbb0cd..b99d258b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/StringUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/StringUtils.java
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.Locale;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.StringTokenizer;
 
 /**
@@ -250,7 +251,7 @@ public static boolean isNotBlank( String str )
      */
     public static boolean equals( String str1, String str2 )
     {
-        return ( str1 == null ? str2 == null : str1.equals( str2 ) );
+        return Objects.equals( str1, str2 );
     }
 
     /**
@@ -1951,7 +1952,7 @@ public static String defaultString( Object obj )
      */
     public static String defaultString( Object obj, String defaultString )
     {
-        return ( obj == null ) ? defaultString : obj.toString();
+        return Objects.toString( obj, defaultString );
     }
 
     // Reversing