What does the author mean by "shoes got by devilish ways will burn your feet"?

The phrase above is figurative language. A figurative language is used for the personification of objects, ideas, and animals.

The phrase "shoes got by devilish ways will burn your feet" means anything you obtained in the wrong way. “Devilish ways,” which includes cheating people, stealing, or committing crimes to obtain, will eventually hurt you, harm you, or destroy you.

“Burn your feet” is a plain meaning of the phrase; the author does not mean there will be a direct heat on your feet that will burn you, but it means whatever you sow, you reap. This phrase is gotten from a book where a boy wanted to steal a woman's purse to get shoes for himself.

Authors will often include quotes as the figurative language in order to get a point across. They like to use figurative language because it makes the words more meaningful. In this example, the author is stating that the shoes were stolen by the boy. When the boy stole the shoes in the story, the author states that his they “will burn your feet.”

This doesn’t mean that the shoes actually got hot and burned his feet because it is an expression that doesn’t mean what it says. It means that the boy would feel guilty, so the burning would be guilt that he had stolen shoes instead of getting them in the right way. The boy wanted the shoes and he also tried to steal the woman’s purse.

Wrong ways can never lead to success. They have a toll on your life over time and there is only so far that you can run from the consequences. The quote states that anything acquired by wrong means will have consequences, saying the exact translation, it means that if you steal money to buy your shoes, guilt will end up burning your feet.

Hence, you won’t get any relaxation after you acquire them by unlawful means. This is a lesson which states that we should use fair means to achieve success. Tossing our heads into unlawful short cuts won’t pay off in the long run.