"There have been a few times this past week when all I wanted to do is just to curl up with a good book"

The appearance, which aides say was planned long before last week’s stunning loss, marked Clinton’s first public remarks since conceding the election to President-elect Donald Trump.

“I know many of you are deeply disappointed about the results of the election,” she said to the crowd at a Children’s Defense Fund gala. “I am too, more than I can ever express.”

Clinton said appearing in public wasn’t the easiest thing for her.

“There have been a few times this past week when all I wanted to do is just to curl up with a good book or our dogs and never leave the house again,” the former presidential nominee said.

Nevertheless, she attempted to inspire her audience and emphasized a line of Martin Luther King Jr. that is oft quoted by President Barack Obama throughout her speech: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”