How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"The leadership," he says. "The person who controls training sets the standard of Dauntless behavior. Six years ago Max and the other leaders changed the training methods to make them more competitive and more brutal, said it was supposed to test people's strength. And that changed the priorities of Dauntless as a whole. Bet you can't guess who the leaders' new protégé is."
The answer is obvious: Eric. They trained him to be vicious, and now he will train the rest of us to be vicious too. (18.108-9)
Society isn't a static thing. We don't know how long the five factions have been set up, but we can see that things are changing (like with Erudite hating Abnegation). Even within the factions, things are changing, as Four makes clear here: the Dauntless leadership has decided to take this whole "let's be brave" idea in a new direction.
Quote #8
"I think we've made a mistake," he says softly. "We've all started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own. I don't want to do that. I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest." He clears his throat. "I continually struggle with kindness." (31.75)
In many other dystopian books, the main characters would find an old book (or an old person) that would describe to them a different way for the world to be. But Four and Tris don't have those old books, so they don't know what life was like before the five-faction system. Still, Four thinks that there's got to be a better way than his "my virtue is better than yours" form of society. This isn't just an abstract question about society for Four—this is a question about how he wants to behave all day everyday.
Quote #9
"You're my daughter. I don't care about the factions." She shakes her head. "Look where they got us. Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again." (35.32)
Natalie sure lays out a depressing theory of the world here: something will always go wrong. And, like mother, like daughter, Tris says something very similar to this earlier (31.76). But what's curious about Natalie's comment is how she accepts the failure of their society (factions aren't good, people aren't good) while holding up hope in family. Maybe that's a hint of what's to come after this world really hits the fan.