Quality of life is a degree of success that is felt by individuals or groups of people. Personality is a fundamental components in predicting quality of life and there is a mutual relationships between quality of life and academic motivation in professional and academic situations.The purpose of the present study was to examine the mediating role of academic motivation in the relationship between core self evaluation and quality of life. Five hundred and twenty students (278 females, 242 males) from Islamic Azad University completed the Core Self Evaluations Scale (CSES; Judge, Erez, Bono & Thresen, 2003), the World Health Organization Quality Of Life-Brief (WHOQOL, 1996), and the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS; Vallerand, Blais, Briere, & Pelletier, 1989). The results indicated core self evaluation had a significant positive correlation with intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and quality of life (P<0.001), and had a significant negative correlation with amotivation (P<0.001). Quality of life had also a significant negative correlation with extrinsic motivation and amotivation (P<0.001). Academic motivation mediated the relationship between core self evaluation and quality of life. The findings suggested that core self evaluation had a determinant role in quality of life and mental health.