The article is not written by Robert Martin, so that doesn’t necessarily establish he said that. You also implied Fowler said it. Thanks for clarifying.
I believe Robert Martin did say this, but there was probably a preface from the book that didn’t make it into the article, so the quote in the article may be a bit out of context.
My recollection of the clean code book and Fowler books were very much “I think these are smells, but smells in the code are also fine”
Note: Robert Martin and Martin Fowler are different people. Are you saying Fowler said this?